"  Remember  Jesus  Christ " 


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raiT  TORK                     QglOAOO                     TOROKTO 

"Remember  Jesus  Christ" 

And  other  Talks  about  Christ 
and  the  Christian  Life  . 


BY 


ROBERT  E.  SPEER 


New  York      Chicago       Toronto 

Fleming   H.  Revel!   Company 

London    and    Edinlorgk 


Copyright,  1899 

by 
FLEMING  H.  REVELL  COMPANY 


Preface 

ALL  the  chapters  of  this  little  book 
were  first  spoken  as  addresses  to  the 
Summer  Bible  Conferences  at  Northfield, 
some  to  the  young  men,  some  to  the 
young  women.  They  are  but  simple 
talks  to  the  heart  and  will  of  students. 
Our  Lord  and  our  Lord's  desire  for  His 
disciple's  life  is  their  only  theme.  What 
other  theme  is  worthy  ? 


Contents 

I 

"REMEMBER  JESUS  CHRIST"         .          .        9 
II 

THE  RELIGION  OF  UNSPOTTEDNESS      .    35 

HI 
CHRIST'S  COMMAND  TO  BELIEVE  .      .    67 

IV 
THE  RULE  OF  THE  ROYAL  LIFE  .      .    95 

V 
THE  SERVING  CHRIST        .       .       .123 

VI 
PHILIP'S  PROBLEM       .       .       .       .155 

VII 
THE  NEW  COMMANDMENT  .       .       .187 


'REMEMBER  JESUS  CHRIST" 


When  diverging  creeds  thall  learn 
Toward  their  central  source  to  turn  ; 
When  contending  churches  tire 
Of  the  earthquake,  wind  and Jire; 
Here  let  strife  and  clamor  cease 
At  that  still  small  voice  of  peace  — 
"  May  they  all  united  be 
In  the  Father  and  in  Me" 

When  as  rolls  the  sacred  year 
Each  fresh  note  of  love  we  hear  ; 
When  the  Babe,  the  Youth,  the  Man, 
Full  of  grace  Divine  we  scan. 
When  the  mournful  Way  we  tread 
Where  for  us  His  blood  He  shed; 
When  on  Easter  morn  we  tell 
How  He  conquered  Death  and  Hell ; 
When  we  watch  His  spirit  true 
Heaven  and  earth  transform  anew; 
Then  with  quicken' d  sense  we  see 
Why  He  said  "  Remember  Mt." 

—A.  P.  Stanley. 


I 

"REMEMBER  JESUS  CHRIST" 

THERE  are  doubtless  reasons  for  cling- 
ing with  loving  preference  to  the  King 
James  Version  of  the  Bible.  There  is  a 
sweetness  of  phrase  in  it  that  will  never 
be  surpassed,  and  its  familiar  turns  of 
expression  are  woven  into  the  fibre  of 
all  our  thought  and  feeling.  But  the 
reader  of  the  Revised  Version  has  these 
advantages:  he  knows  that  he  is  nearer 
to  the  exact  meaning  of  what  the  Bible 
writers  said  and,  though  he  does  lose 
some  of  the  melody  of  the  older  version, 
now  and  then  he  comes  upon  a  change 
of  language  that  brings  out  truth  hidden 
before  and  flings  a  lane  of  glory  across 
the  page. 

Since  beginning  the  use  of  the  Revised 

Version,  seven  or  eight  years  ago,  I  have 

had  many  such  experiences  as  this,  and 

one  which  came  in  the  spring  of  last 

11 


12     "Remember  Jesus  Christ" 

year  has  meant  so  much  to  me  that  I 
wish  to  speak  of  it  to  you.  We  were 
going  on  a  long  inland  journey,  on  a 
house  boat,  up  a  river  in  Southern  China, 
and  ordinary  habits  of  Bible  study  were 
interrupted  so  that  it  was  necessary  to 
invent  some  method  adapted  to  the  new 
conditions.  I  thought  of  the  simple  plan 
of  watching  each  evening,  when  we  had 
our  little  gathering  for  family  prayers, 
for  the  most  meaningful  phrase  in  the 
passage  that  we  read  together,  and  of 
making  that  phrase  the  subject  for  study, 
such  study  as  was  possible,  the  next 
morning.  One  evening  the  old  medical 
missionary,  who  was  the  head  of  our  lit- 
tle party,  was  reading  in  the  King  James 
Version  the  second  chapter  of  the  Sec- 
ond Epistle  to  Timothy,  and  I  was  fol- 
lowing him  in  my  pocket  Revised  Tes- 
tament. There  seemed  to  be  no  notable 
change  until  we  came  to  the  eighth  verse, 
which  he  read,  "Remember  that  Jesus 
Christ  of  the  seed  of  David  was  raised 
from  the  dead,  according  to  my  Gospel." 
In  the  Revised  Version  I  saw  that  the 
verse  was  altogether  different.  It  read, 


"Remember  Jesus  Christ"     fj 

"Remember  Jesus  Christ."  It  sent  a 
thrill  through  me  as  though  heaven  had 
been  opened  just  a  little. 

Remembering  "that  Jesus  Christ,  of 
the  seed  of  David,  was  raised  from  the 
dead,"  has  very  different  meaning  from 
"  Remember  Jesus  Christ."  I  do  not  de- 
preciate the  facts  of  Christ's  life,  nor  the 
unmeasured  significance  of  His  rising 
from  the  dead ;  but  I  do  not  believe  that 
the  memory  of  any  single  fact  of  Christ's 
life,  not  even  the  memory  of  the  fact 
that  He  rose  from  the  dead,  can  be  com- 
pared with  the  meaning  and  the  joy  of 
remembering  Jesus  Christ  Himself. 

Now,  Paul  did  not  tell  Timothy  to  fill 
his  memory  with  the  fact  or  the  doctrine 
of  Christ's  resurrection;  he  did  not  tell 
him  that  any  isolated  fragment  of  the 
Lord's  life  was  to  have  the  supreme 
place  in  his  memory:  he  told  him  that 
his  memory  was  to  be  filled  with  Jesus 
Christ.  "O  Timothy,  remember  Jesus 
Christ."  So  brief  was  his  advice  that 
any  man,  even  now,  in  the  busiest  life, 
can  carry  it  with  him.  No  long  argu- 
ment, no  detailed  statement — "Remem- 


14     "Remember  Jesus  Christ" 

ber  Jesus  Christ."  So  simple;  nothing 
confusing  here;  nothing  elaborate;  noth- 
ing of  minutiae;  nothing  that  leads  one 
off  into  obscurity  and  uncertainty.  "Re- 
member Jesus  Christ."  So  practical — 
what  could  be  more  practical?  "Re- 
member Jesus  Christ."  What  could  Paul 
have  said  to  Timothy  that  would  have 
fitted  him  better  for  the  life  and  work  in 
which  he  was  engaged  ?  A  young  man 
in  a  great  city,  surrounded  by  tempta- 
tions such  as  had  never  entered  his  life 
before,  charged  with  new  and  heavy  re- 
sponsibilities— '  'Remember  Jesus  Christ." 
Nothing  mysterious  in  it.  Many  have 
shrunk  back  from  this  or  that  prescrip- 
tion for  the  spiritual  life  because  there 
was  something  too  mystical  in  it;  some- 
thing altogether  beyond  the  reach  of 
practical  grasp.  You  are  not  sure  that 
following  the  recommended  course  is  a 
possible  thing  for  you,  or  that  following 
it  will  bring  you  to  the  results  that  you 
desire.  But  memory  is  a  matter  of  a 
man's  will,  just  like  his  love.  Horace 
y  Greeley  once  said  that  "the  affections 
*  are  the  flower  and  fruition  of  the  will." 


«* Remember  Jesus  Christ"     15 

I  think  they  are,  and  memory  also.  You 
may  remember  Jesus  Christ  if  you  will. 
Nothing  could  be  more  feasible  than  this 
advice  that  Paul  gave  Timothy,  "Re- 
member Jesus  Christ."  -. — 
I  want  to  speak  about  these  words  as  a 
rule  of  life:  "  Remember  Jesus  Christ." 
What  we  all  need  is  something  trans- 
forming. Here  it  is:  "  Remember  Jesus 
Christ."  You  will  not  find,  though  you 
seek  through  a  long,  long  life,  anything 
more  transforming  than  the  remembrance 
of  Jesus.  "  For  we  all,"  writes  the  Apos- 
tle Paul,  in  the  eighteenth  verse  of  the 
third  chapter  of  Second  Corinthians, 
"with  unveiled  face,  reflecting  as  in  a 
mirror  the  character  of  Christ,  ('the 
glory  of  the  Lord '  the  literal  words 
are,  but  they  mean  the  character  of 
Christ,  for  it  was  in  the  face  of  Jesus 
Christ  that  the  glory  of  the  Lord  was  re- 
vealed), are  transformed  into  the  same 
image  of  character,  from  one  degree  of 
attainment  to  another  degree  of  attain- 
ment, even  as  by  the  Lord,  the  Spirit." 
If  we  should  begin  now  to  remember 
Jesus  as  the  rule  of  life;  should  so  fill 


16     "Remember  Jesus  Christ" 

our  recollections  with  Jesus  Christ  Him- 
self that  we  would  remember  always 
Him,  can  you  even  conceive  of  the 
transformations  that  it  would  work  in 
our  lives  ?  What  would  become  of  that 
questionable  imagination  in  a  memory 
stored  with  Jesus  Christ  ?  What  would 
become  of  that  harshness  of  speech  or 
of  judgment  in  a  life  filled  with  Him  ? 
What  a  wonderful  transformation  it 
would  work  in  our  lives  if  from  morning 
till  evening,  and  from  evening  till  morn- 
ing again,  we  were  engaged  in  nothing 
else  than  remembering  Jesus  Christ! 

Think  of  what  a  restraining  rule  this 
would  be.  From  how  much  would  it 
hold  us  back!  From  that  foul  compan- 
ionship; from  that  darkened  atmosphere; 
from  that  tainted  fellowship,  the  man 
would  be  delivered  at  once  who  felt  in 
his  life  the  restraining  power  of  the 
memory  of  Jesus  Christ.  How  much 
we  need  a  restraining  rule,  those  of  us 
>(  know  to  whom  God  gave  hot  tempers 
when  He  sent  us  into  this  world:  tem- 
pers so  hot  that  we  have  trod  too  near  to 
the  brink  ever  to  let  our  memories  be 


"Remember  Jesus  Christ"     17 

filled  with  the  recollections  of  those  mo- 
ments of  peril.  How  much  we  need 
to  have  introduced  into  these  hot,  im- 
petuous, fierce,  unkindly  lives  of  ours 
the  influence  of  the  self-restraining 
Christ,  whom  Trench  described  in  his 
noble  sonnet: 

"  He  might  have  reared  a  palace  at  a  word, 
Who  sometimes  had  not  where  to  lay  His  head. 
Time  was  when  He  who  nourished  crowds  with 

bread, 

Would  not  one  mea1    into  Himself  afford. 
He  healed  another's  scratch,  His  own  side  bled; 
Side,  hands  and  feet  with  cruel  piercings  gored. 
Twelve  legions  girded  with  angelic  sword 
Stood  at  His  beck,  the  scorned  and  buffeted. 
Oh,  wonderful  the  wonders  left  undone ! 
Yet  not  more  wonderful  than  those  He  wrought  I 
Oh,  self-restraint,  surpassing  human  thought ! 
To  have  all  power,  yet  be  as  having  none ! 
Oh,  self-denying  love,  that  thought  alone 
For  needs  of  others,  never  for  its  own." 

Into  this  life  of  self-restraint,  rather  of 
Christ-constraint,  passes  from  this  time 
forevermore  the  man  who  decides  now 
that  he  will  "remember  Jesus  Christ," 
the  quiet  man,  who  as  a  lamb  before 
his  shearers  is  dumb,  so  opened  not  His 


i8     "Remember  Jesus  Christ" 

mouth,  who  was  reviled  and  reviled  not 
again,  who  said  of  Himself  that  He  was 
meek  and  lowly  of  heart. 

Think  once  again  of  how  stimulating 
as  a  rule  of  life  is  the  recollection  of 
Jesus.  1  once  heard  of  a  poor  child,  who 
in  early  life  was  deformed  so  that  he 
was  no  longer  able  to  move  about  in 
the  active  work  of  life.  When  the  child 
grew  he  bethought  himself  that  he  would 
sit  by  the  open  window  of  his  room  and 
write  on  little  scraps  of  paper  verses 
from  the  Bible,  and  toss  these  bits  of 
paper  out  of  the  window,  praying  that 
some  one  might  pick  up  each  scrap  and 
get  help  from  it.  And  one  day.  as  he 
sat  by  his  window,  he  wrote  on  the  little 
piece  of  paper  that  he  had  in  his  hands, 
these  words  from  the  Gospel  of  John: 
"  I  must  work  the  works  of  Him  that 
sent  me  while  it  is  day:  for  the  night  is 
coming  when  no  man  can  work."  He 
leaned  out  and  dropped  them  down,  and 
they  fell  on  the  brim  of  the  hat  of  a  man 
who  was  passing  by.  By  and  by,  the 
man,  raising  his  hand,  felt  this  little 
roll  of  paper  there,  and  opened  it  and 


"Remember  Jesus  Christ"     19 

read:  "I  must  work  the  works  of  Him 
that  sent  me  while  it  is  day:  for  the 
night  is  coming  when  no  man  can  work." 
Those  words  transformed  his  life.  The 
recollection  of  the  working  Christ  called 
him  to  work.  So  the  man  who  to-night 
fills  his  memory  with  Him  who  had  to 
work  the  works  of  the  Father  that  had 
sent  Him  while  it  was  day,  because  the 
night  was  coming  when  no  man  can 
work  any  mote,  will  go  out  to  live  a 
new  life  for  Him  who  so  made  it  His 
meat  and  His  drink  to  do  the  will  of 
God. 

Where  will  you  find  a  more  sufficient 
rule  of  life  than  this — "  Remember  Jesus 
Christ "  ?  A  man  to  whom  Christ  is  not 
as  yet  all  that  He  wants  to  be,  said  to  me 
half  hopelessly  this  morning  as  he  turned 
away  after  we  had  been  talking  together, 
"  I  am  all  at  sea."  I  told  him  that  I  hoped 
he  would  make  port  soon.  I  should  like 
to  give  him  these  sailing  orders:  "Re- 
member Jesus  Christ."  Dear  fellows,  if 
any  of  you  feel  all  at  sea,  there  is  noth- 
ing that  will  be  of  so  much  help  to  you 
in  making  the  port  as  these  three  words, 


2O     "Remember  Jesus  Christ" 

"  Remember  Jesus  Christ."  Perhaps  you 
are  in  doubt  about  His  deity.  Perhaps 
you  are  in  doubt  about  the  incarnation. 
Perhaps  you  are  in  doubt  about  His  res- 
urrection. Perhaps  this  thing  or  that 
thing  in  the  Christian  life  confuses  you, 
and  you  have  heard  much  that  is  far  be- 
yond your  ability  honestly  to  go.  May 
I  say  to  you  that  if  you  will  remem- 
ber Jesus  Christ  it  will  be  as  absolutely 
sure  that  you  will  come  out  where  Jesus 
Christ  is,  aye,  more  sure  than  the  rising 
of  to-morrow's  sun  ?  "  Remember  Jesus 
Christ "  is  a  rule  of  life  so  complete  that 
you  cannot  find  any  circumstance  or 
condition  of  life  that  can  elude  its  satis- 
factory reach,  the  reach  of  the  memory 
of  Jesus.  You  will  recall  the  saying  of 
Mr.  John  Stuart  Mill,  "There  is  no  better 
rule  than  for  a  man  so  to  live  that  Christ 
would  approve  his  life."  But  how  can 
a  man  know  what  Christ  would  approve 
and  what  He  would  disapprove  save  by 
remembering  Him  ?  I  can  give  you  a 
better  rule  than  that,  and  a  shorter  one, 
"  Remember  Jesus  Christ." 
Let  us  stop  for  a  moment  to  think 


"Remember  Jesus  Christ"     21 

about  these  three  words.  Perhaps  very 
often  in  the  New  Testament  the  writers 
use  this  or  that  name  of  Christ  without 
any  special  thought  as  to  what  name 
they  are  choosing;  but  it  does  seem  that 
in  most  cases  they  selected  with  delib- 
erate intent  the  title  of  Jesus  of  which 
they  make  use.  Now  it  is  "The  Lord," 
now  it  is  the  "Lord  Jesus,"  now  it  is 
the  "Lord  Christ,"  and  now  the  "Lord 
Jesus  Christ,"  and  again  it  is  "Our  Lord 
Jesus  Christ,  "and  again  "Christ  Jesus,  Our 
Lord."  If  you  will  read  through  this  Sec- 
ond Epistle  to  Timothy,  in  the  Revised 
Version,  you  will  see  how  Paul  selects 
the  order  of  Christ's  names.  Every  time 
save  once  he  uses  "Christ  Jesus."  In 
this  verse  you  will  notice  that  he  arranges 
the  words  in  the  order  that  has  become 
familiar  to  us,  "  Remember  Jesus  Christ." 
It  is  the  "Jesus"  whom  he  puts  first, 
"  Remember  Jesus,  of  the  seed  of  David." 
He  means  us  to  saturate  our  memories 
with  the  earthly  life  of  Jesus,  the  Son  of 
David;  he  means  us  to  make  ourselves 
so  familiar  with  the  story  of  that  life  and 
the  way  it  went  to  and  fro  among  men, 


22     "Remember  Jesus  Christ" 

the  atmosphere  of  it,  the  surroundings  of 
it,  that  Jesus  Himself  shall  live  again 
with  us.  Would  not  this  be  sweet  ?  Is 
not  this  all  our  cry  ? 

"Oh  to  have  watched  Thee  through  the  vineyards 

wander, 

Pluck  the  ripe  ears,  and  into  evening  roam !  — 
Followed,  and  known  that  in  the  twilight  yonder 
Legions  of  angels  shone  about  Thy  home !  " 

Perhaps  we  can  watch  Him.  Some  of 
you  will  recall  the  fine  passage  in  Rus- 
kin's  "Modern  Painters,"  in  which  he 
describes  the  uses  of  the  imagination,  by 
which  he  means,  he  says,  the  power  of 
perceiving  with  the  mind  that  which 
cannot  be  perceived  by  the  senses.  "Its 
first  and  noblest  use,"  he  goes  on,  "is 
to  enable  us  to  bring  sensibly  to  our 
sight  the  things  which  are  recorded  as 
belonging  to  our  future  state  or  invisibly 
surrounding  us  in  this.  It  is  given  us 
that  we  may  imagine  the  cloud  of  wit- 
nesses in  heaven  and  earth  and  sea  as 
if  they  were  present — the  souls  of  the 
righteous  waiting  for  us;  that  we  may 
conceive  the  great  army  of  the  inhabi- 


"Remember  Jesus  Christ"     23 

tants  of  heaven  and  discover  among 
them  those  whom  we  most  desire  to  be 
with  forever;  that  we  may  be  able  to 
vision  forth  the  ministry  of  our  God  be- 
side us,  and  see  the  chariots  of  fire  on 
the  mountains  that  girt  us  round;  but 
above  all  to  call  up  the  scenes  and  facts 
in  which  we  are  commanded  to  believe, 
and  be  present,  as  if  in  the  body,  at 
every  recorded  event  of  the  history  of 
the  Redeemer."  It  was  for  this  that  God 
gave  us  these  imaginations,  not  that  we 
might  go  dreaming  falsehoods  or  trivial 
fancies  or  persuading  ourselves  that  the 
unreal  is  real,  at  least  for  a  little  while, 
but  that  we  should  look  back  with  clear 
and  vivid  vision  to  the  earthly  life  of 
Jesus,  the  Son  of  David.  Remember 
Jesus.  Have  we  done  this  once  to-day  ? 
But  that  is  only  part  of  it.  There  is 
more.  "Remember  Jesus  Christ,"  says 
Paul,  "of  the  seed  of  David,  raised  from 
the  dead,  according  to  my  gospel."  Per- 
haps we  hear  more  in  our  common  sur- 
roundings of  the  memory  of  Christ  raised 
from  the  dead  than  we  hear  of  the  mem- 
ory of  Jesus,  the  Son  of  David.  Too 


24     "Remember  Jesus  Christ" 

much  of  the  teaching  of  the  larger  life 
knows  only  Him.  Surely  that  is  the 
larger  half — Christ  raised  from  the  dead. 
If  a  man  is  to  know  but  part,  let  him 
know  Christ,  the  risen  Saviour,  alive  for- 
evermore.  If  he  is  to  make  his  choice, 
let  him  choose  the  Christ  living  now  on 
high  at  God's  right  hand,  and  standing 
here  knocking,  knocking,  knocking,  anx- 
ious to  come  in  and  live  in  our  hearts. 
But  there  are  both  sides  of  our  Lord  Jesus 
Christ's  Person  and  Life  with  which  the 
memory  is  to  be  filled.  We  are  to  "re- 
member Jesus  Christ,"  that  Jesus  who, 
eighteen  hundred  years  ago,  walked  to 
and  fro  among  men  in  Palestine,  and 
that  Christ  who  to-day  is  seated  on  His 
throne  at  God's  right  hand,  working  for 
us,  and  who  is  here  in  the  midst  of  us, 
working  with  and  in  and  through  us. 
"Remember  Jesus  Christ,  of  the  seed  of 
David,  raised  from  the  dead." 

Let  us  make  quite  sure  that  we  under- 
stand all  the  power  of  such  a  rule  of  life 
as  this.  Think  of  the  influence  of  re- 
membering Jesus — in  our  work,  for  ex- 
ample. A  gentleman  told  me  recently 


"Remember  Jesus  Christ"     2£ 

that  years  ago  he  went  to  Dundee,  to  the 
home  of  Robert  Murray  McCheyne,  who 
died  when  he  was  only  twenty-nine  years 
old,  and  for  whom  all  of  Scotland  wept. 
An  old  man  took  him  into  McCheyne's 
study,  and  drew  a  chair  for  him,  and 
said:  "Sit  down  in  this  chair,  and  draw 
it  up  to  that  table,  and  put  your  elbows 
down  upon  the  table,  and  rest  your  head 
upon  your  hands.  Now  let  your  tears 
fall.  That  is  the  way  my  pastor  used  to 
do."  Then  he  took  him  into  the  church, 
into  the  pulpit,  and  he  said :  "Stand  here, 
and  put  your  elbows  down  on  the  pulpit, 
and  let  your  head  rest  on  your  hands,  and 
let  the  tears  fall.  That  is  the  way  my 
pastor  used  to  do." 

And  that  was  the  way  our  Master  used 
to  do.  "And  when  He  drew  nigh,  He 
saw  the  city  and  wept  over  it,  saying,  If 
thou  hadst  known  in  this  day,  eventhou, 
the  things  which  belong  unto  peace." 
And  most  of  our  work  fails — does  it  not  ? 
— because  it  is  barren  of  the  memory  of 
the  weeping  Christ;  because  it  contains 
so  little  of  the  thought  of  the  Christ  of 
the  tender  heart.  We  never  had  in  our 


26     "Remember  Jesus  Christ" 

lives  any  such  hour  as  came  in  the  life  of 
John  Carmichael,  when  he  stood  up  in 
the  free  kirk  of  Drumtochty  and  preached 
his  mother's  sermon.  We  never  have 
seen  the  sweet  face  of  the  living  Jesus, 
who  was  not  ashamed  when  He  stood  in 
the  midst  even  of  His  foes  to  weep  for 
those  after  whose  souls  He  had  longed. 
And  we  shall  never  be  able  to  do  His 
work  with  His  power  until  the  memory 
of  the  tender  Christ  fills  us  in  all  our  toil. 
And  think  of  the  power  of  the  memory 
of  Jesus  in  our  hours  of  temptation.  I 
was  talking  with  a  student  in  North 
Carolina  some  time  ago,  who  seemed 
never  to  have  thought  that  when  the 
writer  of  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews  said 
that  Jesus  was  tempted  in  all  points  like 
as  we  are,  he  actually  meant  that  Jesus 
was  so  tempted.  He  thought  that  there 
were  some  points  in  which  we  are 
tempted,  in  which  Jesus  had  not  been 
tempted.  I  do  not  know  all  that  the 
writer  of  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews 
meant.  I  do  know  that  our  Master  was 
without  any  tarnish  or  blemish  or  stain, 
and  I  know,  also,  that  He  was  tempted 


"Remember  Jesus  Christ"     27 

in  all  points  precisely  as  I  myself  am 
tempted.  And  it  helps  me  in  my  tempta- 
tions to  "remember  Jesus  Christ";  to 
think  of  Him  off  there  in  the  wilderness 
by  Himself,  when  the  devil  was  tempt- 
ing Him;  when,  assailing  Him  from 
every  quarter,  he  endeavored  to  make 
Him  swerve  from  the  clear  and  simple 
path  of  obedience  and  loyalty  to  His 
Father.  I  think  the  man  who  is  remem- 
bering Jesus  Christ  will  find  a  large  num- 
ber of  his  temptations  grow  lighter,  and 
a  large  number  of  them  shortly  flee  alto- 
gether away. 

Then  consider  the  power  of  the  mem- 
ory of  Christ  in  what  we  call  the  trials 
and  the  difficulties  and  the  disappoint- 
ments of  our  lives.  Was  there  ever  a 
man  who  had  as  much  ground  for  de- 
spondency as  Jesus  had?  He  came  to 
save  His  nation,  and  the  nation  cast  Him 
out.  The  little  band  of  disciples  whom 
He  gathered  around  Himself  did  not  un- 
derstand Him,  so  that  when  at  last  He 
pressed  His  teaching  home  to  its  real  end 
they  went  away  from  Him.  And  He 
was  constrained  then  to  turn  to  the  little 


28     "Remember  Jesus  Christ" 

company  of  apostles  who  stood  beside 
Him,  and  to  ask  them  sadly,  "Will  ye 
also  go  away  ? "  And  at  last  those 
twelve  did  go  away.  One  of  them  went 
to  betray  the  Master,  and  another  of  them 
went  to  deny  that  he  knew  Him,  and  the 
other  ten  forsook  Him  and  fled,  and  the 
Lord  was  alone.  Was  there  ever  any 
worker  for  God  who  had  more  ground 
for  disappointment  than  that  poor,  soli- 
tary figure  trudging  the  weary  road  from 
Pilate's  palace  out  to  Calvary's  brow, 
staggering  under  His  cross  ?  Was  there 
ever  in  all  the  ages  of  history  any  one 
who  had  more  reason  to  look  back  upon 
His  life  and  say,  "Surely,  all  that  I  have 
done  has  gone  for  naught "  ?  And  does 
not  the  memory  of  that  sorrow  come 
back  as  the  .rebuke  of  the  crucified  Sav- 
iour Himself  to  every  mood  of  disap- 
pointment and  dejection  and  discourage- 
ment ?  Is  it  suffering  ?  We  young  men 
do  not  suffer  very  much  as  older  men 
have  suffered.  But  there  are  hours  of 
suffering  coming  to  many  of  us;  hours 
of  suffering  which  we  would  not  under- 
stand if  any  one  who  has  passed  through 


"Remember  Jesus  Christ"     29 

them  should  describe  them  to  us,  simply 
because  there  is  nothing  in  our  hearts  to 
answer  to  them.  There  will  come  the 
hours  of  suffering,  when  we  shall  be  glad 
of  every  memory  of  Jesus  Christ. 

There  is  no  need  of  life  that  cannot  be 
met  by  the  memory  of  "Jesus  Christ,  of 
the  seed  of  David,  raised  from  the  dead." 

There  is  no  class  in  life  to  which  this 
is  not  a  sufficient  rule  of  life.  As  for  little 
children,  who  better  than  little  children 
can  remember  Jesus  Christ  ?  1  think  my- 
self often, 

<«  When  I  hear  that  sweet  story  of  old, 

Of  when  Jesus  was  here  among  men, 
How  He  called  little  children  like  lambs  to  His 

fold  — 
I  should  like  to  have  been  with  Him  then. 

"I  wish  that  His  hands  h,id  been  laid  on  my  head, 

That  His  arms  had  been  thrown  around  me, 
And  tiiat   I  mi<;ht  have  seen  His  sweet  look  when 

He  said, 
4  Let  the  lit'.le  ones  come  unto  Me.' " 

And  how  gentle  and  precious  are  the 
memories  of  Jesus  to  the  tradesman! 
He  was  a  carpenter.  Every  carpenter  can 
recall  his  fellow-craftsman  with  a  homely 


30     "Remember  Jesus  Christ" 

and  heartsome  love, — how  homely  and 
heartsome  the  quaint  old  soliloquy  of 
the  carpenter  tells. 

« '  Isn't  this  Joseph's  Son  ?  '  Aye,  it  is  He, 
•Joseph,  the  carpenter,' — same  trade  as  me  ! 
I  thought  as  I'd  find  it,  I  knew  it  was  here, 
But  my  sight's  getting  queer. 

"  I  don't  know  right  where  as  His  shed  might  ha1 

stood, 

But  often  as  I've  been  a  planing  my  wood, 
I've  took  off  my  hat  just  with  thinking  of  He 
At  the  same  work  as  me. 

"He  warn't  that  set  up  that  He  couldn't  stoop 

down 

And  work  in  the  country  for  folks  in  the  town, 
And  I'll  warrant  He  felt  a  bit  pride,  like  I've 
done, 

At  a  good  job  begun. 

"The  parson  he  knows  that  I'll  not  make  too  free, 
But  on  Sundays  I  feel  as  pleased  as  can  be 
When  I  wears  a  clean  smock  and  sets  in  a  pew 
And  has  thoughts  not  a  few. 

*  I  thinks  of  as  how  not  the  parson  hissen, 
As  is  teacher  and  father  and  shepherd  of  men, 
Not  he  knows  as  much  of  the  Lord  in  that  shed, 
Where  He  earned  His  own  bread. 


"Remember  Jesus  Christ"     31 

«•  And  when  I  goes  home  to  my  missus,  says  she 
•  Are  you  wanting  your  key  ? ' 
For  she  knows  my  queer  ways  and  my  love  for 
the  shed, 

(We've  been  forty  years  wed.) 

"  So  I  comes  right  away  by  mysen  with  the  Book 
And  turns  the  old  pages  and  has  a  good  look, 
For  the  text  as  I've  found  as  tells  me  as  He 
Were  the  same  trade  with  me. 

« i  Why  don't  I  mark  it  ? '   Ah,  many  says  so ! 

But  I  think  I'd  as  lief,  with  your  leave,  let  it  go. 
It  do  seem  that  nice  when  I  come  on  it  sudden, 
Unexpected,  you  know." 

And  as  for  us  young  men,  Jesus  was 
one  of  us.  He  was  just  the  age  of  some 
of  us  when  He  began  His  ministry.  I 
like  to  remember  Him,  that  young  man, 
as  He  sat  there  on  the  green  hills  look- 
ing down  over  the  blue  waters  of  Gal- 
ilee, and  the  fishermen  were  down  there 
on  the  beach,  and  all  the  country  folk 
were  gathered  around,  and  He  rose  up 
and  told  them  about  His  Father's  king- 
dom. Some  of  us  are  perple'xed  with 
deep  questionings.  And  He  was  per- 
plexed. His  soul  was  troubled.  What 
should  He  say  ?  Never  was  any  young 


32     "Remember  Jesus  Christ" 

man  called  to  think  such  great  thoughts 
and  solve  such  great  questions  as  Jesus. 
He  knows  us  wholly.  Shall  we  not  know 
Him? 

It  is  very  sweet  to  remember  Him. 
And  when  the  temptation  comes  in  life 
to  do  this  or  that  that  is  not  what  Christ 
would  have  done,  it  is  good  to  remember 
Him,  and  to  turn  to  Him  for  His  help. 

"  For  evermore  beside  us  on  our  way, 

The  unseen  Christ  does  move, 
That  we  may  lean  upon  His  arm  and  say, 
'  Dear  Lord,  dost  Thou  approve  ? '  " 

Now,  this  has  been  very  simple. 
What  could  be  more  simple  than  this? 
There  has  not  been  anything  hidden 
about  it.  There  has  not  been  anything 
that  it  took  any  time  to  think  out.  It  is 
just  as  simple  as  the  dear  sun  that  has 
been  shining  all  day.  It  is  as  simple 
as  a  brother's  love.  "  Remember  Jesus 
Christ." 

Do  you  know  what  the  Holy  Spirit 
came  into  this  world  to  do?  "The 
Comforter,  even  the  Holy  Spirit,  whom 
the  Father  will  send  in  My  name,  He 


"Remember  Jesus  Christ"     33 

shall  bring  to  your  remembrance  all  that 
I  said  unto  you.  The  Comforter  will 
come  unto  you.  And  when  He,  the 
Spirit  of  Truth,  is  come,  He  shall  glorify 
Me;  for  He  shall  take  of  Mine  and  shall 
declare  it  unto  you." 

Here  is  a  test  as  to  whether  or  not  the 
Holy  Spirit  is  in  our  lives.  Have  our 
minds  been  full  to-day  of  recollections  of 
Jesus  ?  If  not,  then  the  Holy  Spirit  has 
not  been  there  doing  His  supreme  work 
of  revealing  Jesus;  for  that  is  what  He 
came  here  to  do — to  hide  Himself  behind 
Jesus,  and  to  make  all  men  to  think  of 
Jesus,  and  to  fill  the  minds  of  men  with 
the  memories  of  Jesus.  "  He  shall  bring 
to  your  remembrance  Me."  Are  you 
remembering  Jesus  Christ  ?  There  is 
nothing  deeper  than  this,  nor  anything 
beyond  this.  The  whole  life  of  Christ's 
disciples  is  wrapped  up  in  this — remem- 
bering Jesus  Christ. 

I  think  very  many  times  of  the  one  I 
love  best.  When  in  the  night  I  awake, 
my  first  thought  is  of  her;  and  when 
early  in  the  morning  the  sunrise  comes 
stealing  into  the  room,  my  first  thought 


34     " Remember  Jesus  Christ" 

is  of  her,  and  constantly  through  the  day 
my  mind  goes  out  to  her.  I  think  of  all 
the  sweet  things  she  has  said,  of  all  the 
sweet  and  loving  things  she  has  done, 
and  I  do  remember  her.  I  wish  I  might 
as  often  and  as  well  remember  Jesus 
Christ.  Dear  fellows,  let  us  begin  it  now. 
To-night  when  you  lie  down  to  sleep,  try 
to  bring  back  some  scene  or  word  from 
Jesus'  life,  and  think  of  Him ;  and  if  in  the 
darkness  you  awake,  remember  Him; 
and  to-morrow  morning,  when  the  sun- 
rise softly  comes,  remember  Him.  Let  us 
begin  now — remembering  Jesus  Christ. 


THE  RELIGION  OF  UNSPOTTEDNESS 


Weary  of  earth,  and  laden  with  my  sin, 
I  look  at  heaven  and  long  to  enter  in  ; 
But  there  no  evil  thing  may  find  a  home  : 
And  yet  I  hear  a  voice  that  bids  me  "  Come" 

So  vile  I  am,  how  dare  I  hope  to  stand 

In  the  pure  glory  of  that  holy  land? 

Before  the  whiteness  of  that  throne  appear  ? 

Yet  there  are  hands  stretched  out  to  draw  me  near. 

The  while  I  fain  would  tread  the  heavenly  way, 
Evil  is  ever  with  me  day  by  day  ; 

Yet  on  mine  ears  the  gracious  tidings  fall, 
"  Repent,  confess,  thou  shalt  be  loosed  from  all." 

It  is  the  voice  of  Jesus  that  I  hear, 
His  are  the  hands  stretched  out  to  draw  me  near. 
And  His  the  blood  that  can  for  all  atone, 
And  set  me  faultless  there  before  the  throne. 

—  S.  J.  Stone. 


II 

THE  RELIGION  OF  UNSPOTTEDNESS 

MEN  have  always  found  it  difficult  to 
agree  upon  an  acceptable  definition  of  re- 
ligion. Some  hold  that  religion  consists 
chiefly  in  the  intellectual  acceptance  of 
certain  formulated  propositions,  while 
others  believe  that  the  chief  element  in 
religion  is  a  certain  form  of  feeling  toward 
God  and  unseen  things.  There  is  doubt- 
less a  large  measure  of  truth  in  each  of 
these  two  views  of  religion,  which  would 
have  to  be  taken  into  account  in  any  at- 
tempt to  formulate  an  exact  and  compre- 
hensive statement  of  what  religion  is. 
But  whatever  truth  there  is  in  these  con- 
ceptions, the  writer  of  the  General  Epistle 
of  James  wholly  passes  them  by  when  he 
comes  to  define  religion:  "Pure  religion 
and  undeflled  before  our  God  and  Father," 
he  says,  "is  this — that  a  man  should  keep 
himself  unspotted."  There  is  something 

37 


38     "Remember  Jesus  Christ" 

else  in  James's  definition,  and  a  not  un- 
important matter,  but  a  matter  neverthe- 
less that  does  not  so  closely  concern  us 
here;  so  that  we  can  afford  to  pass  that 
wholly  by,  and  to  take  the  words  that  I 
have  quoted  as  containing  for  us  the  sub- 
stance of  James's  idea  of  religion.  True 
religion — the  kind  that  passes  muster 
with  God,  the  sort  that  He  will  be  satis- 
fied with — is  this:  that  a  man  should 
keep  himself  unspotted. 

It  is  a  rather  startling  definition  of  re- 
ligion. Unspottedness — is  that  the  whole 
of  religion  ?  James  does  not  say  that 
that  is  the  whole  of  it,  but  he  says  that 
that  is  the  core  of  it,  and  that  the  man 
who  does  not  have  that  sort  of  religion, 
does  not  have  the  kind  of  religion  that 
will  satisfy  Him  who  passes  the  only  re- 
liable judgment  upon  the  religion  of  every 
man.  And  even  after  one  has  thought 
over  James's  definition  of  religion  for  a 
little  while,  and  has  come  to  see  how 
much  there  is  in  it,  it  strikes  him  as  being 
a  very  unconventional  way  of  defining 
religion — some  would  even  say  a  rather 
undignified  way.  Why  could  he  not 


Religion  of  Unspottedness    39 

have  said  that  religion  is  purity,  holiness, 
or  sanctification  ?  For  the  reason  that 
the  early  Christians  liked  to  conceive  of 
things  very  plainly;  loved  to  call  them 
by  illuminating  names.  They  were  not 
fond  of  using  worn-out  metaphors ;  they 
very  much  preferred  when  they  spoke  of 
things  concerned  in  the  religious  life  to 
do  so  newly  and  freshly.  Just  this  first 
metaphor  that  James  uses  is  one  of  which 
they  were  specially  fond.  Paul  tells  us 
in  one  of  his  Epistles  that  the  Church  that 
Jesus  Christ  will  present  to  Himself  in  the 
day  when  He  comes  back  to  wed  His 
Bride,  will  be  a  Church  without  spot. 
The  words  that  close  the  little  Epistle  of 
Jude  make  up  an  ascription  which  is  one 
of  the  finest  of  all  the  ascriptions  of  the 
New  Testament:  "  Unto  Him  that  is  able 
to  guard  you  from  stumbling,  and  to  set 
you  before  the  presence  of  His  glory  with- 
out spot."  The  Second'Epistle  of  Peter, 
describing  a  certain  class  of  men  preva- 
lent irfhis  day,  as  they  are  prevalent  still, 
after  a  vivid  description  of  them  as  men 
whose  tastes  were  lustful, — "born  mere 
animals," — sums  up  the  whole  charac- 


40     "Remember  Jesus  Christ " 

terization  by  calling  them  "  blemishes  and 
spots."  And  the  early  Christians  de- 
lighted to  speak  of  Christ  under  the  same 
metaphor.  They  called  Him  a  "Lamb 
without  blemish  and  without  spot,"  "who 
through  the  eternal  Spirit  offered  Himself 
up  unto  God  without  spot. "  When,  there- 
fore, James  defined  religion  as  consisting 
in  spotlessness,  he  was  only  making  use 
of  a  conception  that  was  quite  common 
among  Christians  of  his  day,  a  concep- 
tion of  religion  that  was  prevalent  also  in 
the  Old  Testament  times. 

Indeed,  he  was  defining  religion  in  just 
the  way  in  which  God  for  centuries  had 
been  ever  endeavoring  to  get  His  people  to 
view  it.  As  I  read  my  Old  Testament,  it 
seems  to  me  almost  that  the  predominant 
purpose  of  the  Law  and  the  Old  Testa- 
ment ritual  was  to  teach  men  the  differ- 
ence between  cleanness  and  uncleanness; 
between  spottedness  and  unspottedness. 
At  the  very  beginning  of  the  Levitical 
Law,  we  are  told  that  God  called  Aaron 
aside  as  the  high  priest  of  the  nation,  and 
told  him  plainly  that  one  of  his  chief 
functions  was  to  show  the  people  that 


Religion  of  Unspottedness    41 

there  was  a  distinction  between  clean 
things  and  unclean  things.  In  the  next 
section  of  the  Levitical  Law  we  are  told 
that  God  took  Moses  and  Aaron  both 
apart  and  repeated  the  instructions  that 
He  had  given  to  Aaron,  and  once  again 
made  it  plain  to  them  in  fresh  phraseology 
that  one  great  purpose  of  His  dealing  with 
the  people  was  to  impress  it  upon  the  Jew- 
ish nation  that  there  was  an  eternal  and 
ineradicable  distinction  between  the  clean 
things  and  the  unclean  things;  the  things 
that  are  common  and  the  things  that  are 
holy.  Therefore  He  told  them  they  must 
divide  all  animals — the  clean  and  the  un- 
clean. He  specified  to  them  the  condi- 
tions under  which  a  fountain  of  water 
was  unclean,  and  must  not  be  drunk 
from,  and  the  conditions  under  which  it 
was  clean.  He  established  the  sanitary 
regulations  that  were  to  govern  the  camp 
of  Israel,  in  order  that  it  might  be  clean. 
"For,"  He  said,  "the  Lord  thy  God 
walketh  in  the  midst  of  thy  camp  to  de- 
liver thee  and  to  give  up  thy  enemies  be- 
fore thee:  therefore  shall  thy  camp  be 
holy;  that  He  see  no  unclean  thing  in 


42     "Remember  Jesus  Christ" 

thee,  and  turn  away  from  thee."  And 
they  were  especially  enjoined  not  to 
touch  the  unclean  things;  they  might 
touch  only  the  clean  things. 

To  make  this  education  of  His  more 
impressive,  God  summed  it  all  up,  focal- 
ized it,  in  the  leper.  "The  leper,"  He 
provided,  "  is  the  embodiment  of  un- 
cleanness;  he  is  to  be  the  symbol  of  un- 
wholesomeness;  his  clothes  shall  be  rent 
and  the  hair  of  his  head  shall  go  loose 
and  he  shall  cover  his  upper  lip  and  his 
cry  shall  be,  'Unclean!  Unclean!'"  He 
was  not  to  be  allowed  within  their  camps, 
he  was  not  to  be  allowed  within  their 
cities.  And  whenever  walking  in  the 
public  roads  through  the  country  he 
heard  the  sound  of  approaching  steps,  or 
the  tinkle  of  the  camel  bells  that  marked 
the  nearing  of  caravans,  he  must  lift  up 
his  hoarse,  strident  voice  and  cry,  "Un- 
clean !  Unclean ! " 

And  it  made  no  difference  if  a  man 
said  that  he  did  not  know  things  were 
unclean.  He  might  not  have  known 
that  the  law  was  in  force.  He  might 
have  said,  "In  the  section  where  I  live 


Religion  of  Unspottedness     43 

public  sentiment  is  not  quite  as  high  as 
here  at  Jerusalem.  Down  in  my  district 
you  can  do  things  that  you  cannot  do  here. 
They  regard  some  things  that  you  regard 
as  unclean  here,  as  clean  down  there,  and 
a  man  of  high  social  standing,  such  as  I 
am,  can  afford  to  ignore  such  little,  petty 
regulations."  It  would  not  do.  No  mat- 
ter how  influential  a  man  was;  no  mat- 
ter how  strong  a  man  was;  no  matter 
what  the  sentiment  of  the  community 
where  the  man  lived  was;  no  matter 
how  ignorant  he  might  be  of  God's  law, 
God  held  him  responsible  for  not  know- 
ing what  was  clean  and  what  was  not 
clean,  and  He  let  fall  upon  him  the  curse 
of  the  unclean  man  if  he  violated  the 
laws  He  had  given  to  the  priests  and  the 
people.  It  did  not  matter  that  a  man 
had  high  political  influence.  Naaman 
was  the  captain  of  the  hosts  of  the  king 
of  Syria.  The  man  of  God  treated  him  as 
if  he  were  the  vilest  pauper.  He  did  not 
go  out  to  see  him.  He  sent  his  servant 
to  tell  him  that  if  he  wanted  to  be  clean 
he  should  wash  seven  times  in  the  Jordan. 
Now,  of  course,  most  of  this  was  only 


44     "Remember  Jesus  Christ" 

God's  kindergarten,  God's  figure  ot 
speech,  God's  metaphor,  to  teach  His 
people  that  there  was  a  moral  distinction, 
to  sharpen  the  edge  of  their  moral  dis- 
cernment, to  make  it  plain  to  them  that 
just  as  between  natural  and  material 
things  God  was  drawing  His  educative 
line,  so  between  moral  things  there  was 
a  line  of  distinction  that  must  never  be 
passed  by  the  man  who  wanted  to  share 
the  cleanness  of  God.  He  meant  to  im- 
press upon  the  people  the  same  concep- 
tion of  religion  which  James  phrased  in 
the  last  verse  of  this  first  chapter  of  his 
Epistle :  ' '  Pure  religion  and  undefiled  be- 
fore our  God  and  Father  is  this:  that  a 
man  should  keep  himself  unspotted;  that 
he  should  free  himself  from  that  corro- 
sive vileness  which  lies  with  its  darken- 
ing spot  upon  him." 

No  man  in  Israel  who  comprehended 
the  teaching  of  the  laws  of  God  believed 
that  he  was  clean.  When  Paul  came 
preaching  the  new  evangel,  he  was  not 
deceived  into  believing  that  any  man  was 
clean.  He  looked  out  over  the  heathen 
world,  and  he  described  it  in  the  scathing 


Religion  of  Unspottedness     45 

terms  that  are  recorded  in  the  first  chapter 
of  the  Epistle  to  the  Romans,  asserting 
at  the  close  of  his  declaration  regarding  the 
sins  of  the  heathen  that  the  most  hideous  of 
them  all  was  this:  that  the  heathen  world 
had  given  up  the  love  of  the  spotlessness 
of  God,  and  had  come  to  worship  instead 
the  uncleanness  of  flesh.  And  when  he 
turned  away  from  the  heathen  world  to 
his  own  heart,  he  was  not  deceived. 
"  In  me,"  he  said,  "that  is,  in  my  flesh, 
there  dwelleth  no  good  thing."  And 
often  he  broke  forth  with  some  of  those 
magnificent  hyperboles  of  which  the 
Bible  is  so  full :  "  There  is  none  righteous ; 
no,  not  one.  There  is  none  that  seeketh 
after  God.  There  is  none  that  doeth 
good,  no,  not  so  much  as  one."  He 
knew  in  his  day,  just  as  every  honest 
man  knows  in  our  day,  that  the  stain  and 
the  spot  had  fallen  upon  every  soul.  It 
comes  upon  a  man  from  without.  He 
takes  up  a  book  to  read,  a  good  book, 
"The  Cloister  and  the  Hearth,"  any  one 
of  a  thousand  "good,  clean  books,"  as 
he  is  told,  and  before  he  knows  it  he  has 
looked  on  a  picture  that  has  fouled  his 


46     "Remember  Jesus  Christ" 

thought.  He  goes  into  college  and  falls 
in  with  a  little  company  of  men,  fair  on 
the  exterior,  and  before  he  knows  it  he 
has  touched  the  unclean  thing  among 
them.  We  have  seen,  each  of  us,  scores 
of  times,  the  corrosive  influence  of  a 
rotten  man,  an  unclean,  spotted  man,  in  a 
crowd  of  clean  and  healthy  men.  His  in- 
fluence works  like  vitriol,  until  a  dozen 
men  are  soiled  with  his  contamination. 
Whichever  way  a  man  turns  in  this  great, 
sad,  glad  world  of  God's,  uncleanness, 
spottedness,  pollution,  touch  him  on 
every  side.  And  we  know  as  well  that 
it  comes  constantly  upon  us  from  within. 
"Let  no  man  say  when  he  is  tempted, 
'  I  am  tempted  of  God ';  for  God  himself 
cannot  be  tempted  of  evil,  neither 
tempteth  he  any  man :  but  every  man  is 
tempted  when  he  is  drawn  away  of  his 
own  lusts,  and  enticed."  Say  not  that 
the  things  from  without  corrode  you. 
"  It  is  not  that  which  entereth  in  through 
the  mouth  that  corrupts  a  man,"  says  our 
Saviour,  "but  the  things  that  proceed 
out  of  the  mouth,  they  corrupt  a  man; 
for  out  from  the  heart  of  man  proceed 


Religion  of  Unspottedness    47 

evil  thoughts,  evil  images,  evil  words, 
and  evil  deeds,  and  these  are  they  that 
corruptaman."  "Oh,"  cried  Job  centuries 
ago,  "that  a  clean  thing  might  come  out 
of  an  unclean!"  It  was  a  hopeless  cry. 
Both  without  and  within  men  touch 
spottedness  every  day. 

Sometimes  you  may  meet  a  man  who 
affirms  that  he  is  spotless,  clean,  both  de- 
ceiving himself  and  calling  God  a  liar. 
But  the  holier  a  man  is,  the  more  nearly 
spotless  he  is,  the  nearer  he  draws  to  the 
clear  vision  of  the  spotless  God,  the  more 
ready  he  is  to  declare  that  his  own  life  is 
foul  and  unclean.  I  suppose  David  was- 
by  all  odds  the  best  man  of  his  day,  and 
yet  it  was  out  of  David's  heart  that  there 
came  the  heartbreaking  prayer,  "Cleanse 
me  from  bloodguiltiness,  O  God,  thou 
God  of  my  salvation!  Create  in  me  a 
clean  heart,  O  God,  and  renew  a  right 
spirit  within  me.  Purge  me  with  hyssop, 
and  I  shall  be  clean;  wash  me,  and  I  shall 
be  whiter  than  snow."  I  suppose  Isaiah 
was  far  and  away  the  cleanest  man  of  his 
time,  and  yet  as  he  stood  that  day  in  the 
year  that  King  Uzziah  died,  in  the  temple, 


48     "Remember  Jesus  Christ" 

and  the  house  was  filled  with  smoke,  and 
the  foundations  of  its  pillars  rocked  to 
and  fro,  and  he  heard  the  voices  of  the 
seraphim  cry,  "Holy,  holy,  holy,  Lord 
God  of  hosts,"  the  cleanest  man  of  Israel 
went  down  into  the  dust,  with  his  mouth 
in  his  hand,  crying,  "Woe  is  me;  for  I 
am  undone;  for  I  am  a  man  of  unclean 
lips,  and  I  dwell  in  the  midst  of  a  people 
of  unclean  lips."  I  suppose  the  Apostle 
Peter  was  among  the  cleanest  men  in  the 
company  of  the  first  disciples,  and  yet  it 
was  he  who  in  that  day  that  they  took 
the  great  catch  of  fishes,  so  that  their  net 
brake,  fell  down  on  the  shores  of  the 
Galilean  sea  before  the  face  of  One  whose 
stainless  beauty  he  had  never  marked  be- 
fore, crying,  "  Depart  from  me,  for  I  am 
a  sinful  man,  O  Lord."  If  there  is  any 
man  who  thinks  that  there  are  no  stains 
upon  his  life,  it  is  only  because  he  has 
never  seen  the  vision  of  the  stainless  life. 
1  And  the  holiest  men  hate  corrosion, 
and  shrink  horror-stricken  from  spot, 
because  they  know  most  fully  just  what 
spottedness,  uncleanness,  foulness  in  a 
life  mean.  They  know  that  these  shut  a 


Religion  of  Unspottedness    49 

man  out  of  the  vision  of  God  and  His 
beauty.  There  stood  up  once,  centuries 
ago,  on  the  shores  of  the  Sea  of  Galilee, 
a  young  carpenter  from  Nazareth,  who 
came  to  show  men  the  Father,  and  among 
the  first  words  that  He  spoke,  surrounded 
there  by  the  throng  of  peasants  who  had 
come  up  from  all  over  Galilee  to  hear 
Him,  were  these  :  "  Blessed  are  the  pure 
in  heart,  for  they  [1  believe  He  meant  they 
only]  shall  see  God."  "Who  shall  as- 
cend into  the  hill  of  the  Lord  ?"  cried  one 
who  went  before  Him,  "and  who  shall 
stand  in  His  holy  place  ?  He  that  hath 
clean  hands  and  a  pure  heart."  Only  he 
shall  ever  see  the  vision  of  Him  to  whom 
Habakkuk  said,  "Thou  art  of  purer  eyes 
than  to  behold  evil."  And  therefore  the 
men  who  value  the  vision  of  God  and 
His  glory  shrink  back  with  white-faced 
loathing  from  spottedness.  They  know 
that  spots  and  uncleanness  shut  men  out 
of  Christ's  kingdom.  "Ye  know  of  a 
surety,"  wrote  Paul  to  the  Ephesians, 
"  that  no  unclean  person  hath  any  inherit- 
ance in  the  kingdom  of  Christ  and  of 
God."  Why  ?  Because  God  loves  him 


50     "Remember  Jesus  Christ" 

too  much  to  let  him  in  without  a  change. 
I  come  more  and  more  to  feel  that  the 
shut  gates  of  Paradise  are  one  of  the  best 
evidences  of  the  love  of  God,  that  He  has 
provided  the  outer  darkness  for  men  who 
would  not  be  happy  elsewhere;  for  men 
who  have  so  corroded  and  rotted  their 
lives,  that  only  an  age-long  abode  of 
corrosion  will  be  a  satisfactory  home  to 
them.  God  shuts  spotted  men  out  of 
His  kingdom  because  He  knows  that 
they  can  have  no  taste  for  it,  no  sym- 
pathy with  it,  no  understanding  or  en- 
joyment of  it;  because  He  knows  that 
light  has  no  portion  with  darkness;  be- 
cause He  knows  that  to  put  a  man  who 
loves  spot  in  with  the  spotless  ones  of 
Christ's  kingdom,  is  to  subject  him  to  a 
misery  that  is  worse  than  death.  The  un- 
spotted man  shrinks  from  the  thought  or 
the  sense  of  spot,  because  he  knows  that 
it  bars  him  out  of  the  kingdom  of  light. 
He  has  read  the  vision  of  John  on  Pat- 
mos,  has  looked  forward  with  him  to 
that  pure  city  toward  which  the  hearts 
of  men  yearn  ever;  has  read  his  words 
that  into  that  city  "  there  shall  in  nowise 


Religion  of  Unspottedness     51 

enter  anything  unclean,  or  he  that  maketh 
an  abomination  and  a  lie,"  and  he  shrinks 
back  from  the  very  thought  of  anything 
that  will  break  the  sympathies  that  bind 
him  to  the  life  that  is  clean  and  holy,  and 
to  the  city  that  knows  no  stain.  My 
dear  fellows,  lift  up  your  eyes  and  see  — 

"  Beyond  our  sight  a  city  foursquare  lieth, 

Above  the  mists  and  fogs  and  clouds  of  earth, 
And  none  but  souls  that  Jesus  purifieth, 
Can  taste  its  joys  or  hear  its  holy  mirth." 

And  from  the  very  thought  of  physical 
uncleanness,  the  clean  and  the  spotless 
man  shrinks  back  as  from  poison  and 
blasphemy.  "  Know  ye  not  that  ye  are 
the  temple  of  God,  and  that  the  Spirit  of 
God  dwelleth  in  you  ?  If  any  man  defile 
the  temple  of  God,  him  shall  God  de- 
stroy: for  the  temple  of  God  is  holy, 
which  temple  ye  are." 

All  this  we  know  only  too  well,  too 
sadly  well!  It  comes  right  home  to  each 
one  of  us  here  to-night,  and,  thinking  it 
over  like  honest  men,  I  am  sure  we  want 
to  know  not  that  we  are  spotted,  but  how 
the  spots  can  be  wiped  off  of  our  lives. 


52     "Remember  Jesus  Christ" 

As  I  understand  the  gospel,  it  came  to  dc 
precisely  this  thing  which  the  Law  and 
the  ritual  failed  to  do.  The  Law  and  the 
ritual  were  sent  to  teach  men  to  love 
purity  and  to  hate  spot,  but  when  men 
failed  to  love  purity  and  to  hate  spot 
through  these  teachers,  God  sent  forth 
His  only  begotten  Son,  that  He  might 
teach  men  to  be  clean  and  make  them 
clean.  When  He  proclaimed  the  plat- 
form on  which  He  was  standing,  He  in- 
cluded in  it  a  plank  to  this  effect:  that 
He  had  come  to  cleanse  unclean  men. 
There  is  not  a  record  in  all  the  Gospels  of 
one  leper  who  crossed  His  path  whom 
He  did  not  cleanse  unless  it  be  Simon. 
He  wished  to  show  His  intense  detesta- 
tion of  all  that  is  foul  and  spotted,  and 
His  intention  to  bring  man  back  to  that 
which  His  Father  had  intended  him 
from  the  very  beginning  to  be.  There- 
fore the  message  that  He  proclaimed  be- 
came at  once  a  message  of  cleanness 
and  of  purity.  "Come  ye  out  from 
among  them,"  cried  Paul,  to  the  Corin- 
thians. "Come  ye  out  from  among 
them  and  be  ye  separate,  saith  the  Lord, 


Religion  of  Unspottedness     53 

and  touch  no  unclean  thing,  and  I  will 
receive  you,  and  will  be  to  you  a  father, 
and  ye  shall  be  to  me  sons  and  daugh- 
ters." And  when  in  another  epistle,  he 
told  of  the  purpose  of  Christ's  coming, 
he  did  it  in  those  matchlessly  tender 
words,  "Husbands,  love  your  wives, 
even  as  Christ  also  loved  the  Church,  and 
gave  Himself  up  for  it,  that  He  might 
sanctify  it,  having  cleansed  it  by  the 
washing  of  water  with  the  Word,  that 
He  might  present  it  to  Himself  a  glorious 
Church,  not  having  spot,  or  wrinkle,  or 
any  such  thing,  but  that  it  should  be 
holy  and  without  blemish."  To  such  an 
extent  did  the  successors  of  Christ  carry 
their  love  of  cleanness  that  Paul  wrote  to 
one  of  his  churches  forbidding  its  mem- 
bers even  to  mention  physical  impurity. 
"Why,  the  very  thought  of  it,"  he  said, 
"  ought  to  be  repulsive  to  you.  Don't 
let  the  words  that  suggest  it  ever  pass 
your  lips.  Let  it  not  be  named  among 
you."  Jesus  Christ  came  that  He  might 
make  men  clean. 

And  all  of  us  know  how  Jesus  Christ 
proposed  to  make  men  clean.     In  the 


54     "Remember  Jesus  Christ" 

central  part  of  the  State  of  Pennsylvania, 
on  a  little  green  hill  that  overlooks  the 
valley  of  the  Juniata,  there  is  a  grave.  I 
love  that  spot  more  than  any  other  spot 
on  earth.  There  is  only  a  white  stone 
there,  with  a  name  on  it,  looking  ever 
toward  the  first  rays  of  the  rising  sun.  And 
underneath  that  name  are  these  words  of 
John's:  "  And  the  blood  of  Jesus  Christ, 
His  Son,  cleanseth  us  from  all  sin." 
There  never  was  a  human  grave  that  less 
needed  such  words  upon  its  stone  but 
the  words  are  true  words  for  every  life.  I 
do  not  know  how  it  does  it.  I  know  that 
it  does  it.  I  know  that  He  came  that  His 
blood  might  do  it;  might  cleanse  men  of 
spot;  might  cleanse  them  of  impurity; 
might  cleanse  them  of  airuncleanness; 
might  make  them  as  stainless  as  Him- 
self. He  cleanses  men  by  His  blood. 
He  cleanses  men  by  the  hope  of  His 
coming.  "And  now,  little  children," 
writes  John,  with  young  men  who  are 
in  the  struggle  in  his  mind,  "and  now, 
little  children,  abide  in  Him,  that  when 
He  shall  appear,ye  may  have  confidence, 
and  not  be  ashamed  before  Him  at  His 


Religion  of  Unspottedness    55 

coming."  "Behold,  what  manner  of 
love  the  Father  hath  bestowed  upon  us, 
that  we  should  be  called  the  sons  of 
God.  Therefore  the  world  knoweth  us 
not,  because  it  knew  Him  not.  Beloved, 
now  are  we  the  sons  of  God,  and  it  doth 
not  yet  appear  what  we  shall  be;  but 
we  know  that  when  He  shall  appear  we 
shall  be  like  Him;  for  we  shall  see 
Him  as  He  is.  And  he  that  hath  this 
hope  in  Him,  purifieth  himself  even  as 
He  is  pure."  Can  you  cross  the  thresh- 
old of  a  polluted  place;  can  you  let  a  foul 
word  pass  your  lips;  can  you  let  the 
wrong  suggestion  steal  into  your  speech, 
when  you  know  that  the  very  next  mo- 
ment He  who  shall  come,  and  who  does 
not  tarry,  after  all,  so  very  long,  may 
stand  by  your  side  on  that  threshold,  or 
may  hear  those  words  or  mark  that  sug- 
gestion ?  Let  a  man  once  conceive  that 
by  his  side  forever  moves  the  present 
and  the  coming  Christ,  and  he  loses  all 
relish  for  stain  and  uncleanness  and  spot. 
And  He  cleanses  men  by  His  word. 
"Now,  ye  are  clean,"  He  said  to  that 
little  company  the  last  night  of  His  in- 


56     "Remember  Jesus  Christ" 

tercourse  with  them,  "Now,  ye  are  clean 
through  the  word  that  I  have  spoken 
unto  you."  "Wherewithal,"  said  his 
great  prototype,  long  before,  "shall  a 
young  man  cleanse  his  way  ?  By  taking 
heed  thereto  according  to  Thy  Word." 
By  Christ's  blood;  by  the  hope  of  Christ's 
coming  and  His  ever  real  presence,  and 
by  the  indwelling  of  Christ's  Word  are 
men  made  clean. 

I  can  hear  a  good  many  men  saying  at 
this  point,  "All  that  is  perfectly  familiar 
to  us.  We  have  passed  through  the  sense 
of  spot.  We  have  passed  through  the 
sense  of  cleansing.  What  we  want  to 
know  is  how  to  keep  clean.  From  time 
to  time  we  have  bowed  down  and  felt 
the  power  of  His  purging  blood,  and 
our  sins  have  afresh  been  washed  away. 
But  how  can  we  keep  ourselves  clean  ?  " 
And  that  is  precisely  James's  point:  True 
religion  and  undefiled  before  God  is  not 
getting  cleansed  once  and  then  spotting 
yourselves  again.  Pure  religion  and  un- 
defiled is  this:  that  a  man  should  keep 
himself  unspotted.  How  ?  Well,  neg- 
atively, let  a  man  bar  the  things  that  are 


Religion  of  Unspottedness    57 

unclean.  Let  a  man  hate  as  the  very 
breath  of  hell  every  spot  of  foulness. 
Let  him  take  as  a  rule  of  his  life  the 
strong  words  of  Jude:  "Hate  the  very 
garments  spotted  by  the  flesh."  So  Paul 
practically  advised  Timothy:  "Flee 
from  the  uncleanness  that  is  common  to 
young  men.  Get  out  of  the  reach  of 
young  men  who  are  spotted  by  it."  And 
this  is-  an  injunction  that  men  do  not 
heed.  Many  of  us  belong  to  fraternities 
that  contain  spotted  men.  Many  of  us 
have  voted  spotted  men  into  our  frater- 
nities. Many  of  us  have  been  officers  in 
Christian  organizations  that  have  know- 
ingly admitted  spotted  men.  Many  of 
us  are  members  of  clubs  which  contain 
spotted  men.  Do  not  think  that  you 
can  handle  fire  and  not  be  burned  or  that 
you  can  touch  soot  and  not  be  soiled. 
I  know  how  many  men  there  are  who 
have  been  deluded  by  the  devil's  lie  that 
only  a  man  who  has  been  himself  de- 
filed can  rescue  spotted  men.  As 
though  no  doctor  were  fit  to  set 
a  broken  arm  without  first  breaking 
his  own!  Let  not  the  devil  persuade 


58     "Remember  Jesus  Christ" 

any  man  that  he  cannot  cleanse  anothei 
until  he  has  first  soiled  himself.  Let 
men  hate  the  things  that  are  unclean. 
Let  men  stand  out  and  out  against  the 
things  that  are  spotted.  Let  men  break 
once  and  forever  with  the  world  that  is 
anti-Christ,  full  of  soil,  and  corruption, 
and  stain,  and  then  they  may  hope  to 
keep  themselves  clean.  And,  positively, 
let  men  love  and  cherish  the  things  that 
are  clean.  Let  them  hate  on  one  side 
the  things  that  are  full  of  spot.  Let 
them  love  on  the  other  side  the  things 
that  are  spotless.  Let  them  think  pure 
thoughts.  "  Whatsoever  things  are  true, 
whatsoever  things  are  honorable,  what- 
soever things  are  just,  whatsoever  things 
are  pure,  whatsoever  things  are  lovely, 
whatsoever  things  are  of  good  repcrt;  if 
there  be  any  virtue,  if  there  be  any  praise, 
think  on  these  things."  I  know  quite 
well  I  am  not  talking  at  random  in  this 
matter.  I  have  met  at  this,  and  other 
summer  schools,  men  by  the  score  who 
have  confessed  before  the  days  of  the 
conference  were  passed  that  they  were 
spotted  with  wrong  and  vile  thoughts. 


Religion  of  Urispottedness    59 

There  are  men  here  to-night  who  would 
willingly  sacrifice  one  hand,  if  by  that 
sacrifice  they  might  guarantee  themselves 
forever  against  the  thinking  of  another 
unclean  thought.  My  fellow-students, 
are  we  so  near  to  beasts ;  are  we  so  close 
of  kin  to  them  that  we  can  think,  for- 
sooth, of  only  the  beast-like  things  ?  Let 
men  have  pure  thoughts.  Let  them 
choose  clean  friends.  The  Apostle  Paul 
knew  perfectly  well  the  importance  of 
this  when  writing  in  his  First  Epistle 
to  young  Timothy,  he  advised  Timothy 
to  choose  his  friends  from  among  the 
pure-hearted  friends  of  God.  Let  a  man 
choose  his  companions  from  clean  men. 
Let  him  strive  as  God  gives  him  grace  to 
lift  up  the  unclean  men.  Let  him  not 
withdraw  so  far  from  them  that  he  can- 
not help  them  into  cleanness.  But  for 
the  sake  of  his  own  spotlessness  let  him 
not  stain  himself  with  the  corruptions 
that  have  ruined  and  wrecked  other 
lives.  And  let  men  speak  clean  and  pure 
and  wholesome  words.  Let  us  think 
one  moment.  How  many  of  us  have 
this  day  allowed  a  questionable  sugges- 


60     "Remembei  Jesus  Christ" 

tion  to  pass  our  lips  ?  How  many  of 
us  have  in  personal  intercourse  this 
day  allowed  the  shady  word  to  be  said; 
allowed  the  tainted  thought  to  be'  ex- 
pressed ?  Oh,  that  men  might  be  willing 
to  speak  clean,  and  sweet,  and  pure 
words!  Those  of  you  who  have  read 
Coleridge  Pattison's  life  will  recall  that, 
when  captain  of  the  cricket  team  at  Eton, 
his  team  was  dining  with  "the  eight"  of 
the  boats,  and  after  the  dinner  was  over, 
and  some  of  the  men  were  speaking  and 
talking,  one  of  them  got  up  and  began 
an  objectionable  song.  Coleridge  Patti- 
son  called  out  at  once.  "If  that  does  not 
stop,  I  shall  leave  the  room."  He  left  the 
room  and  refused  to  go  back  to  his  place 
on  the  team  until  personal  apologies  were 
made.  Dr.  Trumbull  once  told  me  of  a 
similar  incident  in  the  life  of  General 
Grant.  There  was  a  slight  lull  in  one  of 
his  campaigns  and  a  lot  of  men  were  sit- 
ting around  in  his  tent.  General  Grant 
was  writing.  One  of  the  men  looked 
around  and  said,  "I  have  a  good  story 
to  tell.  1  believe  there  are  no  ladies 
here."  General  Grant  looked  up  and  said 


Religion  of  Unspottedness    61 

quietly,  "No,  sir;  but  there  are  gentle- 
men here."  Do  men  lack  self-respect? 
Do  men  believe  they  were  made  in  the 
image  of  darkness  rather  than  in  the  im- 
age of  the  stainless  and  the  crystal  Christ, 
that  they  should  be  willing  to  soil  speech 
with  those  things  they  would  not  be  will- 
ing to  say  to  Christ  ? 

In  these  ways  can  a  man  keep  him- 
self clean.  Fellow-students,  a  man  must 
do  it.  A  man  must  do  it.  We  have 
•come  up  to  this  conference  to  see 
whether  or  not  we  could  fit  ourselves 
for  service.  There  are  a  good  many  men 
here  wearing  buttons  of  the  Brotherhood 
of  St.  Andrew.  Perhaps  they  were  pres- 
ent at  the  last  convention  of  the  Brother- 
hood of  St.  Andrew  in  Boston,  and  tfiey 
will  recall  what  I  think  were  the  last 
public  words  that  Phillips  Brooks  ever 
spoke.  It  was  in  the  consecration  serv- 
ice, and  Charles  James  Wills,  one  of  God's 
true  men,  had  spoken,  and  then  after  him 
Phillips  Brooks  came  down  to  speak. 
And  he  stood  right  down  in  the  church, 
among  the  men,  and  he  spoke  out  of 
that  great,  clean,  wholesome  heart  of  his. 


62     "Remember  Jesus  Christ" 

his  last  words  to  young  men,  and  he 
chose  his  thought  from  the  fifty-second 
chapter  of  the  prophecy  of  Isaiah:  "De- 
part ye,  depart  ye,  go  ye  out  from  thence, 
touch  no  unclean  thing;  go  ye  out  of  the 
midst  of  her;  be  ye  clean,  ye  that  bear 
the  vessels  of  the  Lord."  Do  you  sup- 
pose the  Lord  will  hand  over  His  clean 
and  stainless  power,  His  clean  and  stain- 
less message,  to  spotted  men  ?  Paul  said 
this  to  young  Timothy,  to  paraphrase  his 
words:  "Timothy,  if  you  want  to  be 
used  of  God,  you  have  to  cleanse  your- 
self. You  have  to  purge  yourself  from 
all  unrighteousness.  God  calls  us  not 
unto  uncleanness,  but  unto  holiness, 
and  therefore  do  you  shake  off  from 
you  everything  that  is  unclean,  that 
you  may  be  a  vessel  meet  for  the  Mas- 
ter's use."  Only  the  clean  man  can  hope 
to  be  trusted  by  God  with  the  clean  ves- 
sels of  the  Lord.  We  have  come  up  here 
desiring  with  great  desire  to  see  His  face, 
and  to  become  more  fully  His.  Do  you 
suppose  we  can  do  this  and  love  spotted- 
ness?  "Thou  art  all  fair,  my  love,"  He 
says.  "Thou  art  all  fair,  my  love,  and 


Religion  of  Unspottedness    63 

there  is  no  spot  in  thee."  Only  the  clean 
things  can  have  fellowship  and  life  in 
Him.  An  unclean  man  may  read  a  great 
many  books  that  he  would  be  unwilling 
to  have  an  angel's  eye  see.  He  may  see 
in  this  great,  weary,  but  lovely  world  of 
God's,  many  things  he  would  not  dare  to 
speak  of  to  others.  But  there  are  some 
things  he  will  never  see.  He  will  never 
see  that  city  in  which  John  saw  seven 
angels,  clad  in  jewels  pure  and  bright; 
that  city  all  of  whose  streets  are  pure 
gold,  and  every  one  of  whose  gates  is  a 
pure  jewel,  while  out  from  under  the 
throne  in  the  midst  of  it  there  comes  a 
river  of  the  water  of  life  as  pure  as  crys- 
tal;  and  he  will  never  see  the  great  com- 
pany of  those  who  have  washed  their 
robes  in  the  blood  of  the  Lamb  and,  clad  in 
stainless  white,  stand  all  radiant  through 
and  through  in  God's  most  holy  sight. 

My  dear  fellows,  is  this  our  sort  of  re- 
ligion ?  "  Pure  religion  and  undefiled  be- 
fore our  God  and  Father  is  this:  that  a 
man  should  keep  himself  unspotted." 
Let  every  man  ask  himself,  "Have  I  that 
kind  ?"  It  may  be  some  men  have  come 


64     "Remember  Jesus  Christ" 

up  here  who  don't  like  this  kind  of  reli- 
gion— they  would  a  great  deal  rather  have 
the  sort  that  ends  in  intellectual  assent; 
they  would  a  great  deal  rather  have  the 
sort  that  consists  of  intermittent  religious 
feelings.  True  religion  is  this :  "That  a 
man  should  keep  himself  unspotted."  It 
may  be  that  some  men  have  lost  the  taste 
for  unspottedness.  It  may  be  that  they 
have  tasted  uncleanness  so  long  that  they 
have  no  desire  any  longer,  no  great,  con- 
suming, absorbing  passion  for  cleanness 
and  spotlessness.  May  his  fellow-men 
have  pity  on  such  a  man.  He  has  re- 
jected the  pity  of  God.  I  doubt  if  there 
is  such  a  man  here  to-night.  We  want 
to  be  clean.  We  want  to  have  the  kind 
of  religion  that  means  an  unspotted  life. 
With  all  our  souls  we  want  that  before 
this  evening  closes.  Why  not  get  it  to- 
night ?  Will  blessings  come  this  coming 
week  to  the  man  who  goes  out  from  this 
evening's  service  with  his  life  stained  and 
spotted  ?  God  cannot  give  to  any  man 
who  goes  away  from  this  conference 
that  which  He  hungers  and  thirsts  and 
sent  His  Son  to  give  him,  unless  he  will 


Religion  of  Unspottedness    65 

cleanse  his  life  first.  If  you  want  it 
cleansed,  you  can  have  it  cleansed  to- 
night. If  you  will  go  back  to  your  room 
as  soon  as  this  evening's  meeting  closes, 
and  kneel  down  there  by  yourself,  and 
pray  to  your  Father  which  seeth  in  secret, 
He  will  give  you  cleansing  for  your  sins; 
and  that  will  take  place  in  you  which 
took  place  in  Naaman,  the  Syrian,  years 
and  years  ago,  when  he  went  down  lep- 
rous and  defiled  and  dipped  himself  seven 
times  in  the  Jordan,  and  his  flesh  came 
upon  him  again  as  it  had  been  the  flesh 
of  a  little  child. 


CHRIST'S  COMMAND  TO  BELIEVE 


I  have  a  life  with  Christ  to  live, 
But  ere  I  live  it,  must  I  wait 

Till  learning  can  clear  answer  give 
Of  this  and  that  book's  date  ? 

I  have  a  life  in  Christ  to  live, 

I  have  a  death  in  Christ  to  die  ;— 

And  must  I  wait,  till  science  give 
All  doubts  a  full  reply  ? 

Nay  rather,  while  the  sea  of  doubt 

Is  raging  wildly  round  about, 

Questioning  of  life  and  death  and  sin, 

Let  me  but  creep  within 

Thy  fold,  O  Christ,  and  at  Thy  feet 

Take  but  the  lowest  seat, 

And  hear  Thine  awful  voice  repeat 

In  gentlest  accents,  heavenly  sweet, 

Come  unto  Me,  and  rest : 

Believe  Me,  and  be  blest. 

—J.  L\  Shairp. 


Ill 

CHRIST'S  COMMAND  TO  BELIEVE 

ONE  of  the  most  significant  character- 
istics of  the  temper  of  our  day  is  its  dislike 
of  the  imperative  mood.  It  does  not  like 
to  be  addressed  in  terms  of  "  You  must!  " 
It  likes  to  be  spoken  to  in  other  terms, 
"Will  you  not,  if  it  please  you?"  Old 
limitations  are  largely  passing  away.  The 
fact  that  very  few  people  now  build 
walls  or  fences  around  their  premises  is  a 
symbol  of  the  removal  of  lines  of  limita- 
tion and  obligation  in  the  intellectual  and 
moral  world.  For  the  last  few  years  in 
this  land  we  have  had  abundant  evidence 
of  the  dislike  of  great  classes  of  men  for 
enforced  limitation,  for  obligation,  for 
law.  Many  of  the  newspapers  in  New 
York  were  but  lately  ridiculing  and  at- 
tacking the  police  commissioners  for  en- 
deavoring to  enforce  well-known  laws. 
We  have  seen  in  both  eastern  and  west- 
ern cities  in  the  last  few  years  many 
manifestations  of  the  same  spirit  of  an- 

69 


70     "Remember  Jesus  Christ" 

tagonism  to  obligation.  To  what  the  dis- 
like of  the  imperative  is  due  it  may  be 
difficult  to  say.  Probably  it  has  resulted 
from  a  number  of  causes.  It  may  be  due 
in  part  to  the  modern  conceptions  of  law 
in  the  natural  sciences,  where  we  are  told 
that  a  law  is  not  a  rule,  or  a  force,  stating 
how  things  must  be  done,  and  compel- 
ling them  to  be  done  in  that  way;  it  is  a 
mere  piece  of  information  that,  given 
certain  sets  of  circumstances,  things  are 
accustomed  to  transpire  after  a  certain 
fashion.  It  has  surely  been  due  also  to 
other  things  which  readily  suggest  them- 
selves. The  human  will  has  never  liked 
to  limit  its  sovereignty.  But  it  is  quite 
clear  that  there  is  scarcely  anything  that 
is  so  distasteful  nowadays,  especially  in 
the  sphere  of  religion,  as  the  imperative 
mood.  We  are  told  that  as  far  as  reli- 
gion is  concerned,  it  must  keep  its  hands 
off  the  rest  of  our  life;  that  it  is  a  matter 
altogether  beyond  reason,  and  having  no 
right  whatever  to  coerce  reason ;  that  it 
cannot  say  "must,"  that  it  is  a  matter  of 
suasion,  and  that  its  proper  mood  is  the 
subjunctive,  and  not  the  imperative. 


Christ's  Command  to  Believe  71 

And  yet,  it  must  at  once  occur  to  us 
that  Christ  speaks  constantly  in  the  im- 
perative. We  have  it  in  these  words: 
not  "It  is  a  good  thing  to  have  faith"; 
not  "It  is  desirable,  if  you  wish  the 
blessings,  that  you  should  have  faith  in 
God"— but  "Have  it."  "Have  faith  in 
God."  Mark  you,  He  not  only  uses  the 
imperative  in  religion,  but  He  puts  the  im- 
perative upon  the  most  objectionable 
sphere  in  the  department  of  religion.  "  It 
is  all  right,"  some  will  declare,  "to  say, 
'Thou  shalt,'  and  'thou  shalt  not,'  in  the 
sphere  of  conduct,  but  to  tell  us  we  must 
do  certain  things  in  the  sphere  of  belief  is 
absurd."  They  continue,  "How  can 
God  override  all  the  laws  of  our  lives  by 
compelling  us  to  do  things,  or  ordering 
us  to  do  things  which,  perhaps,  in  the 
very  nature  of  our  constitution,  it  may 
not  be  possible  for  us  to  do  ?  We  can- 
not intellectually  assent  to  a  proposition 
on  orders."  And  yet,  it  is  precisely  on 
the  matter  of  faith  that  the  New  Testa- 
ment persists  in  putting  the  imperative. 
"Have  faith  in  God."  When  Jairus's. 
servants  came  to  him  telling  him  not  to 


72     "Remember  Jesus  Christ" 

trouble  Jesus  further  regarding  his  little 
daughter,  Jesus  said  at  once  to  him, 
"Fear  not;  only  believe."  And  when 
the  Philippian  jailer  asked  Paul  and  Silas 
what  he  must  do  to  be  saved  they  ad- 
vised him  in  terms  of  command,  "Be- 
lieve!" 

Now,  it  is  not  to  be  denied  that  there 
is  a  difficulty  here,  and  that  this  com- 
mand of  Christ  to  have  faith  is  a  stum- 
bling-block to  many.  It  is  such,  of  course, 
to  every  one  who  does  not  like  obliga- 
tion. But  it  is  also  a  stumbling-block  to 
people  who  have  no  such  aversion  but 
who  say  that  belief  comes  to  them  only 
from  an  intellectual  examination  of  prin- 
ciples or  facts  laid  before  them,  and  that 
if  belief  does  not  spring  up  spontaneously 
from  such  an  examination,  no  amount  of 
statutes  will  create  it.  And  they  take  ex- 
ception to  things  which  Christ  said  and 
did  on  just  this  ground,  that  He  did  not 
respect  our  mental  constitution  but  en- 
couraged belief  by  offering  men  material 
advantages.  They  say  he  did  not  deal 
rightly  with  men,  in  purchasing  intel- 
lectual agreement  with  material  gain  or 


Christ's  Command  to  Believe   73 

Jhe  offer  of  it.  It  is  easy  to  sympathize 
with  those  who  find  difficulty  in  their 
way  here. 

Now,  there  must  be  some  relief.  God 
never  involves  us  in  a  difficulty  from 
which  He  does  not  give  us  a  way  of 
escape.  A  great  many  people  make  short 
shrift  of  the  difficulty  by  simply  saying, 
"There  is  a  chasm  between  religion  on 
the  one  hand,  and  reason  on  the  other, 
and  the  only  way  a  Christian  can  get 
peace,  is  by  standing  on  the  religious  side 
of  the  chasm  and  crucifying  his  intellect." 
Such  people  say,  "There  is  no  use  what- 
ever in  a  Christian's  attempting  to 
straighten  himself  out  intellectually:  he 
cannot  do  it;  he  must,  once  and  for  all, 
make  up  his  mind  to  be  content  with 
keeping  his  religious  beliefs  separate  on 
the  one  side,  and  his  intellectual  convic- 
tions on  the  other."  Surely,  this  is  a 
very  unhappy  way  of  escape.  It  lands 
us  in  more  difficulties  than  it  relieves  us 
from. 

It  is  simpler  and  truer  to  deny  that 
faith  is  defined  by  calling  it  "intellectual 
assent."  That  is  in  no  sense  an  adequate 


74     "Remember  Jesus  Christ" 

definition  of  it  at  all.  If  it  were,  faith 
could  not  be  commanded.  Faith,  pri- 
marily and  essentially,  is  vital,  moral,  a 
personal  relationship.  Intellectual  assent 
is  a  fruit  of  this  relationship.  When  a 
child  believes  something  which  its  father 
tells  it,  we  call  the  child's  acceptance  an 
act  of  faith.  But  is  it,  except  in  an  in- 
direct sense  ?  It  is  a  fruit  of  faith.  Faith 
is  the  confidence  which  the  child  reposes 
in  its  father,  which  leads  it  to  believe  in 
what  the  father  says.  But  that  belief  is 
not  so  much  an  act  as  a  fruit  of  faith  on 
the  part  of  the  child. 

If  you  will  read  through  the  New  Tes- 
tament carefully,  you  will  see  that  while 
not  seldom  the  words  "faith,"  and  "be-- 
lief," and  "believe"  are  used  with  a  pre- 
ponderating reference  to  an  intellectual 
attitude  toward  certain  doctrines  or  a 
body  of  doctrine,  yet  in  the  main  these 
words  are  used  with  reference  to  the 
moral  and  vital  relationship  which  every 
soul  is  summoned  to  recognize  between 
itself  and  God.  This  idea  is  surely  up- 
permost in  Christ's  mind  when  He  says, 
"  Have  faith  in  God."  With  it  in  his  mind, 


Christ's  Command  to  Believe  75 

the  writer  of  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews 
also  speaks  of  an  "evil  heart  of  unbelief," 
and  Paul  prays  that  the  Ephesians  may  be 
given  a  spirit  of  wisdom  and  revelation 
in  the  knowledge  of  Christ,  "  having  the 
eyes  of  their  heart  enlightened."  It  is 
with  the  same  thought  of  faith  in  mind 
that  James  pointed  out  that  the  devils  are 
the  most  orthodox  people  in  the  universe, 
that  there  is  no  truth  to  which  they  do 
not  assent;  and  yet,  no  Christian  would 
like  to  rank  himself  in  their  company. 
And  so  Christ  felt  He  had  a  right  to  order 
people  to  have  faith,  because  it  was  not 
a  matter,  primarily,  of  their  minds.  If  it 
were,  He  could  not  have  commanded  it. 
But,  because  it  was  primarily  a  matter  of 
moral  character,  of  heart,  of  life,  of  per- 
sonal relationship,  He  could  order  it  and 
He  did.  "Have  faith,"  He  said,  "in 
God." 

With  the  emphasis  thus,  in  our  minds, 
upon  the  moral  and  vital  character  of 
faith,  let  us  consider  Christ's  command 
as  a  fourfold  call.  First  of  all,  it  is  a  call 
to  a  personal  surrender  to  God.  If  you 
will  take  your  New  Testament  and  read 


76     "Remember  Jesus  Christ" 

it  through,  marking  all  the  passages 
where  men  are  bidden  to  believe  or  to 
have  faith,  you  will  find  that  in  pretty 
nearly  every  case  the  root  idea  of  the 
writer  or  the  speaker  is  that  there  should 
be  on  the  part  of  men  a  moral  surrender 
to  God  or  to  personal  truths  of  God. 
This  is  clearly  the  idea  of  Paul  and  Silas 
in  their  words  to  the  Philippian  jailer, 
"  Believe  on  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,"  i.  e., 
on  Jesus  Christ  as  Lord;  as  the  one  who 
possesses  you;  as  the  one  to  whom  you 
must  make  a  personal  surrender.  This 
is  clearly  the  idea  of  the  Apostle  James. 
His  Epistle  is  a  fiery  protest  against  the 
preponderance  of  the  desiccated,  lifeless 
elements  in  men's  conceptions  of  faith. 
And  John,  in  his  Gospel,  has  exactly  the 
same  idea  of  what  faith  is,  primarily: 
"But  as  many  as  received  Him,  to  them 
gave  He  the  right  to  become  children  of 
God,  even  to  them  that  believe  on  His 
Name";  in  which  passage  very  clearly 
John  has  as  synonymous  in  his  mind 
those  who  believe  and  those  who  re- 
ceive Jesus  as  their  Lord,  the  One  from 
whom  they  take  their  names  and  under 


Christ's  Command  to  Believe  77 

whose  Name  they  serve.  And  Christ  puts 
the  same  two  truths  in  the  same  parallel- 
ism when  He  declares:  "  He  that  cometh 
to  Me  shall  never  hunger;  and  he  that 
believe th  on  Me  shall  never  thirst."  Our 
good  old  hymn  so  defines  faith  in  its  first 
stanza: 

"  My  faith  looks  up  to  Thee, 
Thou  Lamb  of  Calvary, 

Saviour  divine. 
Now  hear  me  while  I  pray ; 
Take  all  my  guilt  away ; 
Oh  let  me  from  this  day, 

Be  -wholly  Thine." 

The  first  and  the  last  lines,  give  us  our 
definition,  "  My  faith  looks  up  to  Thee, — 
let  me  be  wholly  Thine." 

So,  when  Christ  turned  to  His  disciples 
«n  the  presence  of  the  withered  fig  tree, 
and  said,  "Have  faith  in  God,"  He  did 
not  mean,  "Accept  this  moment  all  the 
doctrines  which  I  have  been  propounding 
to  you,"  though  He  well  knew  that  that 
would  follow  from  a  surrender  to  Him. 
What  He  meant  was  that  they,  person- 
ally, should  surrender  their  lives  in  the  ab- 
solute confidence  of  an  unwavering  trust 


78     "Remember  Jesus  Christ" 

to  God.  If  they  so  surrendered  to  God, 
and  in  their  new  relationship  used  God's 
omnipotence,  they  would  be  able  to  say 
unto  a  mountain,  "  Be  thou  removed, 
and  be  thou  cast  into  the  sea,"  and  it 
should  be  done. 

Paul  expresses  this  same  view  of  faith 
when  he  writes  to  the  Ephesians,  pray- 
ing that  Christ  may  dwell  in  their  hearts 
by  faith,  and  that  they  "may  be  able  to 
comprehend  with  all  saints,  what  is  the 
breadth,  and  length,  and  depth,  and 
height;  and  to  know  the  love  of  Christ, 
which  passeth  knowledge."  There  is  a 
story  of  one  of  Napoleon's  soldiers  who 
was  shot  in  the  chest,  the  bullet  lodging 
near  his  heart.  When  in  the  hospital  the 
surgeons  were  operating,  cutting  for  the 
oullet,  he  lay  still,  in  perfect  quietness, 
until  they  had  laid  his  very  heart  bare, 
and  he  could  feel  the  outer  air  beat  upon 
it,  and  then  he  whispered,  "Surgeon,  I 
think — if  you  cut  much  further, — you 
will  touch — the  emperor."  He  had  Na- 
poleon there,  dwelling  in  his  heart  by 
faith.  His  faith  had  not  meant  an  intel- 
lectual agreement  with  Napoleon's  plans. 


Christ's  Command  to  Believe   79 

He  did  not  know  anything  about  them. 
Napoleon  had  not  called  him  into  con- 
sultation. He  probably  did  not  know 
any  of  Napoleon's  ideas  or  purposes. 
But  he  believed  in  him.  He  had  faith  in 
him,  and  by  faith  Napoleon  dwelt  in  his 
heart.  That  is  Christ's  call  to  us,  first  of 
all.  When  He  says,  "Have  faith  in 
God,"  He  summons  us  to  an  uncon^ 
ditional,  unwithholding,  irreversible,  life> 
engulfing  surrender  to  Him. 

In  the  second  place,  the  words,  "  Have 
faith  in  God,"  are  a  call  to  intensity  in 
service.  It  was  with  something  of  just 
this  purpose  that  they  were  originally 
spoken.  The  disciples  had  seen  the  fig 
tree  wither  away.  They  called  Christ's 
attention  to  the  fact,  and  He  said  to 
them,  "You  would  like  to  do  great 
things,  would  you  not?  Well,  'have 
faith  in  God,'  and  you  shall  have  such 
power.  You  shall  do  such  things  as 
these  yourselves."  Faith,  He  meant  to 
tell  them,  links  us  so  closely  with  God 
as  to  make  us  co-workers  with  Him;  as 
to  give  us  His  power  in  the  world,  so 
that  we  work  no  longer  with  a  human 


8o     "Remember  Jesus  Christ" 

soul's  strength  only,  but  with  the 
strength  of  God.  Now,  ever  since  the 
day  when  Christ  said  those  words,  men 
have  failed  to  catch  their  significance. 
As  early  as  the  day  of  the  Apostle  James, 
they  failed,  and  he  strove  through  his 
Epistle  to  correct  their  misconceptions 
and  errors.  Men  were  clear  enough  as 
to  the  necessity  of  sound  doctrine,  but 
they  overlooked  the  need  of  personal 
surrender  and  the  good  works  and  love 
of  man  flowing  from  it.  In  this,  James 
says,  their  position  was  not  in  advance 
of  that  of  the  devils,  who  were  intel- 
lectually sound,  but  were  devils  neverthe- 
less. Later,  men  continued  to  believe 
that  the  life  of  faith  was  a  life  of  con- 
templation, rather  than  a  life  of  activity; 
and  instead  of  conceiving  Christ's  com- 
mand as  a  command  of  most  intense 
service  and  social  efficiency,  they  re- 
garded it  as  an  invitation  to  fold  their 
hands  and  go  away  into  convents  and 
monasteries,  and  cultivate  a  life  of  medi- 
tative and  secluded  contemplation.  And 
even  where  this  mistake  has  not  been 
made,  another  not  unlike  it  has  been  by 


Christ's  Command  to  Believe  81 

those  who  have  held  that  when  we  come 
over  into  the  Christian  life  we  are  to  leave 
behind  us  all  the  things  we  had  in  the  old 
life;  all  the  powers,  the  faculties,  the  ca- 
pacities of  it;  that  the  change  is  meant  to 
slay  everything  we  possessed  before,  and 
we  must  take  nothing  with  us  from  the 
old  life  to  the  new.  Now,  I  cannot  read 
this  in  my  Bible.  I  turn  back  to  the  Old 
Testament,  to  the  book  of  Judges,  to  the 
story  of  Gideon,  and  look  at  the  attrac- 
tive picture  of  the  young  man  Gideon 
threshing  wheat  at  his  father's  wine  press 
in  Ophrah;  and,  as  he  threshes,  the  angel 
of  God  comes  down  and  stands  by  his 
side.  And  the  angel  says  to  him,  "The 
Lord  is  with  thee,  thou  mighty  man  of 
valor."  What  does  Gideon  reply?  He 
bursts  forth  in  very  human,  protesting 
fashion.  "If  the  Lord  is  with  us,  why 
are  we  in  bondage  ?  I  have  heard  that 
story  many  times.  Our  fathers  told  those 
old  tales  to  us  when  we  were  little  chil- 
dren. He  was  a  very  great  God  in  those 
old  days  when  He  brought  our  fathers 
out  of  Egypt.  But  He  has  cast  us  off. 
These  Midianites  hold  us  in  the  meanest 


82     "Remember  Jesus  Christ" 

bondage."  There  is  the  fire  of  a  strong 
human  spirit  rich  in  passions  in  Gideon's 
bold,  assertive  reply.  It  is  wonderful  that 
the  angel  did  not  rebuke  him.  "God 
cannot  use  you.  You  will  have  to  have 
your  will  and  spirit  broken  before  you 
can  be  used."  But,  no;  he  said,  "Gideon, 
I  like  you.  I  like  the  spirit,  the  strong 
passion,  with  which  you  speak.  Now, 
go  right  out  and  serve  God  in  this  your 
might,  and  you  shall  save  Israel  from  the 
hand  of  Midian."  And  Gideon  went  out 
with  his  might,  and  struck  the  shackles 
off  the  wrists  of  his  people. 

Turn  over  to  the  New  Testament. 
Jesus  declares  that  a  man  must  be  born 
the  second  time,  becoming  a  double  man 
by  being  born  a  second  time;  and  when 
He  sets  up  the  standard  of  spirit  for  His 
disciples,  He  does  not  say,  "Except  ye 
be  changed,  and  become  as  a  passionless 
old  man  of  eighty-three,  ye  shall  never 
see  the  kingdom  of  God";  but,  "Ex- 
cept ye  be  converted,  and  become  as  a 
little  child,  ye  shall  not  see  the  kingdom 
of  God."  Who  but  a  little  child  would 
be  ambitious  enough  to  claim  the  moon 


Christ's  Command  to  Believe  83 

as  a  plaything  on  the  nursery  floor? 
Who  but  a  little  child  would  have  the 
strength  to  triumph  over  the  well-nigh 
insuperable  obstacles  which  stand  in  the 
way  of  the  acquisition  of  that  greatest  of 
all  human  attainments,  the  power  of  hu- 
man speech  ?  When  Christ  picked  out 
the  child-spirit  as  the  standard  of  spirit, 
as  the  condition  of  entrance  into  His 
kingdom,  He  named  the  spirit  of  most 
intense,  assertive  power.  Faith  in  God 
is  a  rest,  surely  enough.  I  would  not 
say  one  word  to  depreciate  the  sweet- 
ness of  the  rest  that  comes  to  every  man 
or  woman  who  surrenders  self  to  Jesus 
Christ.  But  faith  in  God  is  also  a  power. 
A  life  of  true  faith  is  a  life  of  power. 
President  Hastings,  of  Union  Seminary, 
summed  up  truly  what  Christ  had  in 
mind  for  His  apostles,  when  he  told  the 
graduating  class,  several  years  ago,  that 
he  had  two  pieces  of  advice  to  give  them. 
The  first  was,  Find  the  place  where  God 
wants  you.  The  second  was,  When  you 
have  found  it,  burn  to  the  socket. 
"  Have  faith  in  God,"  is  a  call  to  a  life  of 
intensity  in  service,  and  service  in  which 


84     "Remember  Jesus  Christ" 

every  faculty  and  gift  of  life  must  find 
play,  transfigured,  made  a  thousandfold 
more  effective  by  the  Spirit  of  Christ. 

««  So  with  the  Lord :     He  takes  and  He  refuses 
Finds  Him  ambassadors  whom  men  deny, 
Wise  ones  nor  mighty  for  His  saints  He  chooses, 
No,  such  as  John  or  Gideon  or  I. 

"  He  as  He  wills  shall  solder  or  shall  sunder, 

Slay  in  a  day  or  quicken  in  an  hour, 
Tune  Him  a  music  from  the  Sons  of  Thunder, 
Forge  and  transform  my  passion  into  power." 

In  the  third  place,  it  is  a  call  to  posi- 
tiveness.  "  Have  faith  in  God."  It  was 
not,  "Have  speculations  about  God"; 
nor,  "Have  doubts  regarding  Him"; 
but,  "  Have  positive  faith  in  Him."  Obe- 
dience to  this  command  in  this  sense 
brought  mighty  strength  into  the  work 
and  life  of  the  early  Church.  It  had  an  un- 
qualifiedly unhesitating  message.  "  Have 
faith,"  was  its  one  word,  "in  God,  and 
in  His  Son,  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ."  Such 
a  message  men  were  wanting.  They  had 
had  speculations  put  before  them  for  years 
and  years;  and  I  have  no  doubt  Plato 
only  voiced  the  longing  of  many  honest 


Christ's  Command  to  Believe  85 

hearts  throughout  the  world  when  he 
said:  "We  must  lay  hold  of  the  best 
human  opinion  in  order  that,  borne  by  it 
as  on  a  raft,  we  may  sail  over  the  dan- 
gerous sea  of  life,  unless  we  can  find  a 
stronger  boat,  or  some  word  of  God 
which  will  more  surely  and  safely  carry 
us."  It  was  just  this  positiveness  that 
commended  the  Gospel  to  all  honest 
souls  who  were  looking  for  something 
in  which  they  could  safely  abide.  On 
the  other  hand,  the  agnostic  type  of 
mind  was  vexed  by  the  positive  certainty 
of  the  Christian  doctrine  and* life.  Caecil- 
ius  was  much  angered:  "  Human  medi- 
ocrity is  so  inadequate  to  the  exploration 
of  things  divine,  that  it  is  not  granted  us 
to  know,  nor  is  it  permitted  to  search, 
nor  is  it  just  to  force  the  things  which 
are  upheld  suspended  in  the  heavens 
above  us,  nor  those  which  are  sunk  deep 
in  subterranean  abysses." 

But  the  early  Church  knew.  It  had 
faith,  and  spoke.  The  same  positiveness 
commended  Christ  and  His  work  to  men. 
People  had  talked  and  speculated.  Many 
schools  of  philosophers  and  teachers  ex- 


86     "Remember  Jesus  Christ" 

isted  in  Jesus'  day.  What  commended 
Jesus  was  that  His  teaching  was  differ- 
ent from  theirs.  He  spoke  as  one  who 
had  authority,  and  not  as  the  Scribes. 
We  need  the  sense  of  confidence  which 
is  faith.  Have  we  such  faith  ?  Or  are 
we  not  wavering,  many  of  us,  in  our 
Christian  lives?  When  we  attempt  to 
speak  to  anybody  in  college,  or  in  life, 
do  we  lack  certitude  ?  Are  we  drifting 
from  one  point  to  another  point,  so  that 
we  do  not  know  where  we  stand  posi- 
tively and  splidly  ?  If  so,  let  us  have  faith. 
I  like  to  turn  back  and  read  the  paper 
found  among  General  Armstrong's  notes 
after  he  had  died.  It  shows  us  the  heart 
of  a  man  who  believed.  It  was  written 
on  New  Year's  eve,  several  years  before 
his  death.  Notice  how  fully  it  illustrates 
the  heart  grasp  of  the  truth  of  assurance 
that  was  a  part  of  Christ's  command: 

"MEMORANDA. 

"Now  when  all  is  bright,  the  family 
together,  and  there  is  nothing  to  alarm, 
and  very  much  to  be  thankful  for,  it  is 
well  to  look  ahead  and,  perhaps,  to  note 


Christ's  Command  to  Believe  87 

the  things  that  I  should  wish  known 
should  I  suddenly  die.  I  wish  no  monu- 
ment or  fuss  whatever  over  my  grave ; 
only  a  simple  headstone;  no  text  or  sen- 
timent inscribed,  only  my  name  and  the 
date.  I  wish  the  simplest  funeral  serv- 
ice, without  sermon  or  attempt  at  ora- 
tory— a  soldier's  funeral.  I  hope  that 
there  will  be  enough  friends  to  see  that 
the  work  of  the  school  shall  continue. 
Unless  some  shall  make  sacrifices  for  it,  it 
cannot  go  on.  A  work  that  requires  no 
sacrifice  does  not  count  for  much  in  ful- 
filling God's  plans.  But  what  is  com- 
monly called  sacrifice  is  the  best,  happiest 
use  of  one's  self  and  one's  resources,  the 
best  investment  of  time,  strength,  and 
means.  He  who  makes  no  such  sacrifice 
is  most  to  be  pitied.  He  is  a  heathen 
because  he  knows  nothing  of  God. 

"  In  the  school,  the  great  thing  is  not 
to  quarrel;  to  pull  all  together;  to  refrain 
from  hasty,  unwise  words  and  actions; 
to  unselfishly  and  wisely  seek  the  best 
good  of  all;  and  to  get  rid  of  workers 
whose  temperaments  are  unfortunate; 
whose  heads  are  not  level;  no  matte; 


88     "Remember  Jesus  Christ" 

how  much  knowledge  or  culture  they 
may  have.  Cantankerousness  is  worse 
than  heterodoxy.  I  wish  no  effort  at  a 
biography  of  myself  made.  Good  friends 
might  get  up  a  pretty  good  story,  but  it 
would  not  be  the  whole  truth.  The 
truth  of  a  life  usually  lies  deep  down — • 
we  hardly  know  ourselves — God  only 
does.  I  trust  His  mercy.  The  shorter 
one's  creed,  the  better.  '  Simply  to  Thy 
cross  I  cling,'  is  enough  for  me. 

"Prayer  is  the  greatest  power  in  the 
world.  It  keeps  us  near  God.  My  own 
prayer  has  been  most  weak,  wavering, 
inconstant;  yet  it  has  been  the  best  thing 
I  have  ever  done.  I  think  this  a  universal 
truth.  What  comfort  is  there  in  any  but 
the  broadest  truths  ? 

"  It  pays  to  follow  one's  best  light — 
to  put  God  and  country  first;  ourselves 
afterwards.     Taps  has  just  sounded. 
"S.  C.  ARMSTRONG. 

"  HAMPTON,  VA., 
"New  Year's  Eve,  1890." 

How  good  is  the  tone  of  this!  The 
firm,  clear  spirit  of  faith  is  here.  Stand 


Christ's  Command  to  Believe   89 

fast.  Believe.  Be  not  tossed  to  and  fro 
with  every  wind  of  doctrine.  Have  faith 
in  the  eternal  and  trust-deserving  God. 

Lastly,  Christ's  command  is  a  call  to 
hopefulness.  "  Have  faith  in  God."  Each 
of  the  two  terms  of  it  is  a  call  to  hope- 
fulness. If  He  had  not  said  anything 
about  God,  but  only  "Have  faith,"  His 
words  would  have  been  a  call  to  hope- 
fulness. The  writer  of  the  Epistle  to  the 
Hebrews  conceives  of  faith  as  the  assur- 
ance of  things  hoped  for,  the  evidence  of 
what  is  unseen  as  yet,  as  a  belief  in  better 
times  ahead.  Speaking  of  the  faith  of 
the  saints  of  old,  he  declares: 

"These  all  died  in  faith,  not  having  re- 
ceived the  promises,  but  having  seen  them 
afar  off,  and  were  persuaded  of  them,  and 
embraced  them,  and  confessed  that  they 
were  strangers  and  pilgrims  on  the  earth. 
For  they  that  say  such  things,  declare 
plainly  that  they  seek  a  country.  And 
truly,  if  they  had  been  mindful  of  that 
country  from  whence  they  came  out, 
they  might  have  had  opportunity  to  have 
returned.  But  now  they  desire  a  better 
country,  that  is,  an  heavenly:  wherefore 


90     "Remember  Jesus  Christ" 

God  is  not  ashamed  to  be  called  their 
God:  for  He  hath  prepared  for  them  a 
city." 

And  the  other  term  commands  and  cre- 
ates hopefulness:  "Have  faith  in  God." 
What  do  they  think  God  is,  who  speak 
of  the  "good  old  times,"  or  long  for  past 
hours  when  they  better  knew  and  enjoyed 
the  blessing  and  fellowship  of  Christ, 
who  sing 

"  Where  is  the  blessedness  I  knew 
When  first  I  saw  the  Lord  ?  " 

What  kind  of  a  God  do  they  think  we  have  ? 
Does  He  not  always  keep  the  best  things 
for  the  last  ?  Is  His  love  stronger  than 
His  strength,  that  we  had  the  best  things 
yesterday  and  the  day  before,  and  are  not 
having  yet  better  things  to-day,  nor  to 
have  better  things  to-morrow  ?  A  true 
theology  insists  that  this  month  is  the  best 
month  of  our  lives.  Every  day  is  the  best 
day,  and  the  next  day  will  be  better. 
Have  you  ever  noticed  in  reading  the 
book  of  the  Acts,  that  almost  every  time 
the  evangelist  Luke  speaks  for  himself  he 
says,  "day  and  night"  when  he  has  oc^ 


Christ's  Command  to  Believe   91 

casion  to  use  these  words  ?  Almost  every 
time  he  quotes  a  speech  of  the  Apostle 
Paul's,  he  says  "  night  and  day."  Now, 
this  is  an  interesting  little  verification  of 
the  accuracy  of  the  writer  of  the  book  of 
Acts.  "  Day  and  night "  was  the  Gentile 
order  of  speech,  while  "night  and  day" 
was  the  Jewish  order.  Luke  as  a  Gen- 
tile used  the  former  order;  Paul  as  a  Jew 
the  latter.  The  Gentiles  conceived  of  the 
night  as  coming  after  the  day.  Their 
golden  age  was  behind.  It  was  darkness 
ahead.  For  the  Jew,  the  golden  age  was 
always  to  come.  It  was  darkness,  Egypt, 
behind.  The  account  of  the  creation  in 
Genesis  says  that  the  "evening  and  the 
morning,"  not  the  "morning  and  the 
evening,"  were  the  first  day.  Have  you 
thought  of  this ?  "The  evening  and  the 
morning  were  the  first  day."  Day  does 
not  begin  when  the  morning  comes.  It 
ends  in  light.  Bright  are  the  things  to 
come  in  a  Christian's  life,  and  the  dark 
things  are  behind.  Every  day  for  the 
Christian  is  a  better  day  than  all  the  days 
before.  And  every  Christian  can  truth- 
fully look  forward  to  better  times,  better 


92     "Remember  Jesus  Christ" 

hours,  better  moments  to  come.  The 
gloom  and  darkness  are  past.  Bonar  ex- 
presses the  truth  in  one  of  his  hymns: 

"  'Tis  first  the  true,  and  then  the  beautiful, 

Not  first  the  beautiful,  and  then  the  true : 
First  the  wild  wood,  with  rock  and  fen,  and  pool, 
Then  the  gay  garden,  rich  in  scent  and  hue. 

"  'Tis  first  the  good,  and  then  the  beautiful, 

Not  first  the  beautiful,  and  then  the  good : 
First  the  rough  seed,  sown  in  the  rougher  soil, 
Then  the  flower  blossom  or  the  branching  wood. 

••  Not  first  the  glad,  and  then  the  sorrowful, 

But  first  the  sorrowful,  and  then  the  glad 
Tears  for  a  day :  for  earth  of  tears  is  full, 
Then  we  forget  that  we  were  ever  sad. 

«  Not  first  the  bright,  and  after  that  the  dark, 

But  first  the  dark,  and  after  that  the  bright : 

First  the  thick  cloud,  and  then  the  rainbow's  arc; 

First  the  dark  grave,  then  resurrection  light 

"  'Tis  first  the  night — stern  night  of  storm  and  war, 

Long  night  of  heavy  clouds  and  veiled  skies: 
Then  the  far  sparkle  of  the  Morning  Star, 
That  bids  the  saints  awake,  and  dawn  arise." 

I  do  not  know  which  of  us  need  to 
hearken  most  to  which  one  of  these  four 
aspects  of  Christ's  call.  It  may  be  that 


Christ's  Command  to  Believe  93 

there  are  some  of  us  who  need  to  heed 
most  Christ's  command  as  a  call,  not 
primarily  to  an  intellectual  attitude,  but  to 
a  moral  atmosphere,  a  personal,  complete 
surrender.  I  do  not  believe  in  blinking 
intellectual  difficulties.  The  honest  thing 
is  to  face  them  honestly,  if  they  are  hon- 
est. But,  at  the  same  time,  we  ought  to 
be  discerning  enough  not  to  confuse  this 
incident  of  Christian  life  with  the  essence 
of  it.  It  is  a  personal  relationship  of  liv- 
ing love.  "Have  faith  in  God."  Or,  it 
may  be  that  some  of  us  have  been  sloth- 
ful in  our  work;  that  we  have  been  idle 
and  negligent  of  opportunities  for  service. 
"  Have  faith  in  God,"  is  for  us  a  call  to 
intenser  activity.  Or,  it  may  be  that  some 
of  us  are  lacking  in  clear,  positive  convic- 
tion. We  do  not  know  where  we  stand. 
We  have  nothing  to  give  to  anybody. 
How  can  we  do  work?  Let  us  "have 
faith  in  God."  There  is  not  one  of  us 
who  does  not  need  to  hear  Christ's  com- 
mand in  the  last  sense.  Hot,  sultry 
weather  will  come,  and  we  shall  think  of 
and  long  for  the  pleasant  days  we  have 
experienced.  Whatever  kind  of  weather 


94     "Remember  Jesus  Christ" 

God  gives  us  is  the  most  pleasant  kind. 
People  are  always  complaining  about  it. 
We  always  want  the  most  unseasonable 
kind  of  weather.  Let  us  believe  that 
what  God  gives  us  is  the  best  for  us  at 
the  time  of  the  gift.  God  gives  us  every 
moment  what  is  best  for  us,  if  we  are 
willing  to  take  it;  and  if  we  are  His  dis- 
ciples, and  are  "willing — there  is  more  in 
this  thought  than  the  words  convey — we 
can  go  through  life  with  a  smile,  know- 
ing that  every  experience  in  it  is  the 
sweetest  and  best  that  could  come  to  us. 
"Have  faith  in  God!"  Christ  knows 
what  the  words  ought  to  mean  to  each 
one  of  us. 


THE  RULE  OF  THE  ROYAL  LIhc 


I  worship  Thee,  sweet  Will  of  God 

And  all  Thy  -ways  adore, 
And  every  day  I  live,  I  seem 

To  love  Thee  more  and  more. 

Thou  wert  the  end,  the  blessed  rule 
Of  our  Saviour's  toils  and  tears  ; 

Thou  wert  the  passion  of  His  Heart 
Those  three-and-thirty  years. 

And  He  hath  breathed  into  my  soul 

A  special  love  of  Thee, 
A  love  to  lose  my  will  in  His, 

And  by  that  loss  be  free. 

He  always  wins  who  sides  with  God, 

To  him  no  chance  is  lost ; 
God's  Will  is  sweetest  to  him,  when 

It  triumphs  at  his  cost. 

When  obstacles  and  trials  seem 

Like  prison-walls  to  be, 
I  do  the  litlle  I  can  do, 

And  leave  the  rest  to  Thee. 

—F.  W.  Faber. 


IV 

THE  RULE  OF  THE  ROYAL  LIFE 

IT  is  very  interesting  to  note  the  way 
in  which  the  different  New  Testament 
writers  summarize  the  life  and  service  of 
our  Lord.  Simon  Peter,  for  example, 
standing  in  the  house  of  Cornelius  and 
preaching  to  the  people  there,  spoke  of 
Jesus  on  this  wise:  "  He  passed  through 
doing  good."  What  was  foremost  in 
Peter's  mind  was  evidently  the  intensity 
and  the  benevolence  of  the  service  of 
Jesus,  On  the  other  hand,  the  Apostle 
Paul  was  accustomed  to  speak  on  another 
wise:  he  wrote  to  one  of  the  churches, 
desirous  that  it  should  emulate  Jesus'  ex- 
ample, "Christ  pleased  not  Himself." 
Or,  as  he  put  the  same  truth  in  a  yet 
more  striking  way  to  the  Philippians, 
"He  emptied  Himself."  I  think  we  can 
understand  in  a  little  measure  why  it  was 
that  this  aspect  of  Christ's  life  and  min- 
istry appealed  to  Paul.  He  must  have 
97 


98     "Remember  Jesus  Christ" 

been  a  man  of  very  strong  passions, 
which  he  found  it  hard  to  repress.  He 
was  tempted  to  please  himself,  to  follow 
his  own  nature,  and  instead  of  emptying, 
rather  to  assert  himself  and  to  retain 
where  Christ  had  surrendered.  So  the 
element  in  Jesus'  life  that  was  foremost 
in  his  mind  shaped  his  method  of  state- 
ment, and  he  spoke  of  the  Master  as  one 
who  pleased  not  Himself.  The  Apostle 
John,  in  his  First  Epistle,  seems  to 
have  liked  best  to  think  of  Jesus  as  the 
deeply  loved  Son  whom  the  Father  had 
sent  to  be  the  Saviour  of  the  world.  His 
eyes  were  fixed  on  the  boundaries  of  the 
Lord's  unlimited  mission,  and  on  the 
closeness  of  the  Lord's  relationship  to  the 
Father  out  of  whose  presence  He  had 
come. 

Now  the  writer  of  the  Epistle  to  the 
Hebrews,  Apollos,  or  whoever  he  may 
have  been,  has  a  different  way  of  speak- 
ing about  the  life  of  Jesus  and  of  sum- 
marizing the  ministry  of  Jesus.  In  the 
tenth  chapter  of  his  Epistle,  in  a  rather 
free  quotation  from  the  fortieth  Psalm,  he 
sums  up  the  life  and  character  of  Christ 


Rule  of  the  Royal  Life       99 

in  this  way :  "  Lo,  I  come  (in  the  volume 
of  the  book  it  is  written  of  me)  to  do 
Thy  will,  O  God."  The  writer  of  this 
Epistle  has  been  speaking  about  God's 
nearness  to  men  and  the  methods  of 
God's  expression  of  Himself  to  men,  and 
he  thinks  of  Jesus  as  one  who  came,  the 
expression  of  the  Father's  will  and  the 
image  of  His  person,  not  to  do  any  will 
of  His  own,  but  to  do  the  will  of  the 
Father.  Here  we  have  the  best  general 
summarization  of  the  life  and  ministry  of 
Jesus.  He  came  to  do  God's  will.  That 
was  the  rule  of  the  royalest  life  that  was 
ever  lived ;  and  it  will  be  the  rule  of  all 
the  royal  life  that  ever  will  be  lived  until 
that  day  when  the  King  shall  come-back 
in  His  beauty,  and  we  shall  all  perfectly 
do  the  will  of  God. 

I  am  not  sure  that  we  need  the  Bible  to 
teach  us  that  this  is  the  rule  of  a  royal 
life.  Surely,  not  one  of  us  has  ever  gone 
through  a  hospital  ward,  looking  down 
upon  the  white  cots  and  the  whiter 
cheeks  and  the  folded  hands  and  the 
traces  of  suffering,  who  has  not  had  it 
borne  in  upon  him,  that  it  would  have 


loo  "Remember  Jesus  Christ" 

been  well  for  men  from  the  beginning  it 
they  had  done  the  will  of  God.  One 
never  goes  through  the  corridors  of  a  jail 
and  looks  through  the  grated  doors  at  the 
pale  faces  within,  without  having  it  im- 
pressed on  him  with  overwhelming  force 
that  men  could  scarcely  find  anywhere  a 
better  preacher  than  that  jail  of  the  truth 
that  it  would  be  well  for  every  man  if  he 
did  the  will  of  God.  That  little  blade  of 
grass  under  our  feet,  that  little  waving 
leaf  upon  the  tree  tells  us  with  all  God's 
eloquence  the  same  truth,  that  everybody 
is  here  and  everything  is  here  to  do  the 
will  of  God. 

And  yet,  far  more  eloquently  than  by 
these  inarticulate  preachers  was  this  truth 
expressed  to  us  in  the  life  of  Jesus.  The 
writer  of  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews  had 
just  the  idea  of  Christ's  life  which  Christ 
had  of  it  Himself.  "I  came  down  from 
heaven,"  He  said,  "not  to  do  Mine  own 
will,  but  the  will  of  Him  that  sent  Me; 
and  He  that  sent  Me  is  with  Me.  The 
Father  hath  not  left  Me  alone,  for  I  do 
always  those  things  that  please  Him." 
The  doing  of  the  will  of  God  seems  to 


Rule  of  the  Royal  Life     101 

have  been  the  foundation  stone,  as  it  was 
the  ultimate  principle,  of  the  life  and  the 
teaching  of  Jesus.  That  was  what 
Robert  Falconer  came  to  at  last,  in  George 
Macdonald's  novel,  when,  after  all  his 
long  struggle  and  his  dissatisfaction  with 
the  emptiness  of  his  life,  he  went  to  his 
box  and  took  out  the  Testament  that  Dr. 
Anderson  had  given  him  long  before,  and 
sought  for  light  and  peace.  He  pro- 
ceeded to  read  over  the  life  and  the  words 
of  Jesus,  and  these  were  the  discoveries 
that  he  made  in  the  teaching  of  Jesus: 
that  He  taught:  "First,  that  a  man's 
business  is  to  do  the  will  of  God;  sec- 
ond, that  God  takes  upon  Himself  the 
care  of  the  man;  and  third,  therefore, 
that  a  man  must  never  be  afraid  of  any- 
thing." That  is  part  of  the  outline  of 
what  I  should  like  to  say  simply  to  you 
now. 

It  is  the  business  of  each  one  of  us — 
we  have  no  other  business  in  this  world 
— to  do  the  will  of  God.  We  meet  two 
classes  of  people  who  deny  this.  One 
class  denies  it  openly;  the  other  class, 
not  having  strength  of  character  or  will 


1O2  "Remember  Jesus  Christ" 

sufficient  for  that,  denies  it  by  its  life. 
One  class  that  denies  this  truth  is  made 
up  of  those  who  do  their  own  wills 
rather  than  the  will  of  God ;  and  the  sec- 
ond class  is  made  up  of  those  who,  not 
having  strength  enough  to  do  their  own 
wills,  fall  in  behind  their  fellows  and  do 
their  fellows'  wills.  These  two  classes, 
and  the  third,  those  who  do  the  will  of 
God,  exhaust  all  the  men  and  women 
with  whom  we  come  in  contact.  The 
slave,  who  does  the  will  of  somebody 
else;  the  knave,  who  tries  to  do  his  own 
will;  and  the  freeman,  who  does  the  will 
of  God. 

Now,  oddly  enough,  the  man  who 
tries  to  do  his  own  will  and  the  man  who 
tries  to  do  the  will  of  some  other  man 
feel  each  that  he  is  free,  while  they  think 
the  man  who  does  the  will  of  God  binds 
himself  to  slavery.  Do  you  think  so? 
It  was  a  just  cause  of  regret  at  the 
World's  Exposition  in  Chicago,  that 
President  Eliot  left  out  of  the  words  he 
selected  for  the  Peristyle  the  whole  core 
of  the  sentence  of  Jesus,  part  of  which 
he  wrote  there.  "And  ye  shall  know 


Rule  of  the  Royal  Life     103 

the  truth,"  he  wrote,  "and  the  truth 
shall  make  you  free.*  It  was  not  a  fair 
quotation.  "If  ye  abide  in  My  word, 
then  shall  ye  be  My  disciples  indeed,  and 
ye  shall  [then]  know  the  truth,  and  the 
truth  shall  make  you  free."  President 
Jordan  of  Leland  Stanford  University  is 
reported  to  have  said  once  that,  so  far  as 
he  could  see,  the  life  which  declared  it- 
self free  to  live  laxly  or  to  live  with  a  low 
standard  was  in  the  most  degraded  sort 
of  bondage  which  he  could  imagine.  To 
do  my  own  will  is  no  freedom;  to  do  the 
will  of  some  other  man  as  blind  as  I  is  no 
liberty.  The  only  liberty  to  be  found  in 
this  world  is  to  be  found  in  the  emanci- 
pation of  the  bondage  of  God.  They 
are  free,  who,  having  His  word  abiding 
in  them,  become  His  disciples  indeed, 
and  are  made  free  by  His  truth. 

Now  these  two  classes  of  which  I  have 
spoken  think  also  that  they  have  this  ad- 
vantage over  us:  that  it  is  not  hard  for 
them  to  find  out  the  will  that  they  want 
to  do,  while  it  is  always  hard  for  a  man 
to  find  out  the  will  of  God.  Some  years 
ago,  when  shooting  in  the  foothills  of 


104  "Remember  Jesus  Christ" 

the  Alleghany  Mountains,  I  spent  "unday 
with  an  old  farmer  and  his  wife.  As 
the  Sunday  afternoon  drew  on  to  a  close, 
the  farmer's  son  said  that  there  was  to 
be  a  meeting  held  by  some  Winnebrina- 
rian  preacher  on  the  hilltop  close  by,  and 
asked  me  if  I  would  not  like  to  go  there. 
So,  after  the  sun  had  set,  we  all  climbed 
up  the  ridge  to  the  schoolhouse  where 
the  meeting  was  to  be  held.  It  was  a 
rainy  night,  and  the  people  came  in  from 
the  bushes  where  the  meeting  was  ordi- 
narily held,  and  sat  on  the  forms  in  the 
school-room.  I  think  I  was  never  in 
such  a  strained  meeting.  There  were  a 
number  of  people  kneeling  down  at  "the 
mourners'  bench  "  in  front,  and  there  was 
a  very  simple,  earnest  preacher  holding 
forth  to  them  with  much  zeal  and  the 
warmth  of  what  was  evidently  a  very  in- 
tense life.  This  was  the  common  form 
of  expression  which  all  the  people  kneel- 
ing there  were  using:  "I  can  see  Jesus, 
but  I  cannot  quite  reach  Him.  I  can  see 
Jesus,  but  I  cannot  quite  reach  Him.' 
Many  people  seem  to  feel  that  God  deals 
with  us  in  that  way;  that  the  hardest 


Rule  of  the  Royal  Life 


thing  to  find  out  in  this  world  is  what 
God  would  have  us  do  and  be;  that  if 
we  will  only  drift  into  our  own  will  for 
ourselves,  that  will  be  simple  and  easy 
enough,  but  to  ascertain  the  will  of  God 
is  a  painful  and  arduous  process.  Is  it 
so  ?  You  recall  the  lines  in  which  Mr. 
Lowell  expresses  the  truth  that  the  best 
things  are  the  easiest  to  get;  that  the 
heart  of  God  is  the  openest  door: 

"  At  the  devil's  booth  are  all  things  sold, 
Each  ounce  of  dross  costs  its  ounce  of  gold  ; 
For  a  cap  and  bells  our  lives  we  pay, 

Bubbles  we  buy  with  a  whole  soul's  tasking  : 
'Tis  heaven  alone  that  is  given  away, 

'Tis  only  God  may  be  had  for  the  asking." 

God,  instead  of  standing  afar  off,  stands 
near.  The  will  of  God  is  the  hardest 
thing  to  miss  and  the  easiest  thing  to  find. 
It  is  seeking  us. 

What  is  that  will  ?  So  clearly,  that  we 
may  never  miss  it,  the  Bible  suggests  the 
three  great  outlines  of  God's  will.  All 
the  rest  is  comparatively  unimportant  de- 
tail. The  will  of  God  for  every  man  and 
woman,  is  this,  first  of  all:  "This  is  the 


io6  "Remember  Jesus  Christ" 

work  [or  the  will]  of  God,  that  ye  should 
believe  on  Him  whom  God  hath  sent." 
That  is  first.  No  one  of  us  can  ever  dis- 
cover anything  else  about  the  will  of  God 
until  we  have  taken  that  first  step.  The 
first  will  of  God  for  every  man  and 
woman  is  that  the  child  of  God  should 
enter  into  Christ's  life,  and  believe  on 
Him.  There  are  many  ways  of  stating 
this  truth.  Jesus,  of  course,  chose  the 
best  of  them  all:  that  the  will  of  God 
consisted  in  believing  in  Him,  consisted 
in  entering  into  His  friendship,  in  getting 
into  moral  and  spiritual  sympathy  with 
Him,  in  making  a  complete  surrender  of 
life  to  Him.  That  is  the  will  of  God  for 
each  of  us. 

What  is  next?  "This  is  the  will  of 
God,  even  your  sanctification,"  your 
holiness  of  life;  that  we  should  go  on  in 
Christ's  fellowship  to  a  life  of  Christ's 
fullness,  to  a  life  enriched  with  all  that 
Christ  came  to  bring,  to  a  life  in  which 
Christ  Himself  is  all  that  He  can  be  to  the 
souls  of  men. 

And  what  is  third?  "It  is  not  God's 
will  that  any  man  should  perish."  It  is 


Rule  of  the  Royal  Life     107 

God's  will  that  all  should  come  into  life. 
However  narrow  you  and  I  may  be,  God 
has  a  heart  of  universal  love.  He  would 
save  every  man  if  He  could.  His  love  is 
so  large  that  every  soul  in  this  world  is 
embraced  in  it,  and  only  those  fall  out  of 
it  who  antagonize  His  will. 

Now  these  three  things  are  the  will  of 
God  for  each  one  of  us:  believing  in 
Jesus  Christ,  going  on  into  the  holiness 
of  the  life  that  is  Christ's,  entering  into 
Christ's  service  for  the  redemption  of 
man  unto  a  Father  who  would  not  lose 
any  one  of  His  children.  We  shall  find, 
just  as  surely  as  we  let  these  things  be 
the  great  outlines  of  God's  will  to  us, 
that  everything  else  that  we  think  most 
important  falls  into  its  proper  place,  illu- 
mined at  once  by  all  the  light  that  pours 
upon  the  life  that  has  accepted,  first  of 
all,  the  great  outlines  of  God's  revealed 
will  for  itself.  "If  any  man  will  do  His 
will,  he  shall  learn  " — more  than  can  be 
told  to  any  man  who  has  not  already  be- 
gun to  learn  for  himself. 

It  is  our  business  to  do  this  will  of 
God.  Can  you  imagine  anything  more 


io8  "Remember  Jesus  Christ" 

strengthening  than  to  have  the  "  chance  " 
to  do  the  will  of  God  ?  This  was  the 
watch  cry  that  Pope  Urban  gave  the 
Crusaders  eight  centuries  ago,  as  he  stood 
in  the  market-place  of  the  village  of  Cler- 
mont:  "Deus  vult" — "It  is  the  will  of 
God,"  and  nerved  by  the  conviction  that 
what  they  were  doing  was  the  will  of 
God,  they  swept  out  from  that  old 
French  market-place;  they  filled  all  Eu- 
rope's highways  with  the  bones  of  their 
dead ;  they  poured  out  the  best  blood  of 
the  world  on  Palestinian  battlefields ;  they 
whitened  the  Mediterranean  with  the 
sails  of  their  fleets,  and  they  wrested  acre 
after  acre  of  the  holy  soil  from  the  hands 
of  the  Saracens.  They  believed  they 
were  doing  the  will  of  God.  What  can 
withstand  the  man  who  is  summoned  to 
do  the  will  of  God  and  who  believes  that 
he  can  discover  what  the  will  of  God  is, 
and  let  his  life  fall  into  line  with  that  will  ? 
What  can  be  more  sweet  than  doing 
the  will  of  God  ?  There  are  other  things 
that  we  may  wish  to  do  that  will  make 
our  lives  full  of  envy  and  jealousy  and 
discontent,  but  there  is  a  life  of  perfect 


Rule  of  the  Royal  Life     109 

sweetness  and  peace  for  the  man  or 
woman  who  wills  to  do  the  will  of  God. 
What  can  any  one  do  more  than  the  will 
of  God  ?  No  pope  upon  his  throne  was 
ever  able  to  do  more.  And  the  hum- 
blest person  in  all  this  world  can  do  as 
much. 

And  what  can  be  more  lasting  and  en- 
during than  the  doing  of  the  will  of  God  ? 
This  is  the  indictment  that  John  brings 
against  doing  anything  else  than  the  will 
of  God,  that  it  simply  is  not  worth  while. 
It  will  not  last.  " For  the  lusts  ['tastes' 
is  the  Greek  word]  of  the  flesh,  and  the 
lusts  of  the  eye,  and  the  vainglory  of 
life  are  not  of  the  Father,  but  are  of  the 
world.  And  the  world  passeth  away, 
and  the  lusts  thereof,  but  he  that  doeth 
the  will  of  God  abideth  forever."  For 

"  When  the  sun  grows  cold, 
And  the  stars  are  old, 
And  the  leaves  of  the  Judgment  Book  unfold  " 

then  the  men  and  women  who  have  done 
the  will  of  God  will  see  that  which  they 
have  done  stand  forth  in  all  its  true  light 
and  eternal  radiance  as  the  only  thing  in 


no  "Remember  Jesus  Christ" 

all  this  world  destined  to  last  with  God 
Himself  forever  and  ever. 

It  is  our  business  to  do  the  will  of  God, 
and  therefore  we  need  never  be  afraid.  I 
wondered  very  much  when  I  first  read 
"  Robert  Falconer  "  that  that  thing  should 
be  put  in  a  man's  creed.  Why  should  we 
be  afraid  ?  And  yet  the  longer  one  stops 
to  think  of  it,  the  more  he  discovers  that 
fear,  after  all,  rules  most  of  our  life. 
We  dress  as  we  do,  often  most  uncom- 
fortably, through  fear  of  breach  of  cus- 
tom. We  hold  the  opinions  that  we  do 
through  fear  of  emancipation.  We  fall 
into  certain  habits  through  fear  of  liberty. 
We  shrink  from  death  through  fear  of 
life.  A  great  part  of  our  life  is  lived  un- 
der the  shadow  of  fear.  To  those  who 
have  learned  to  do  the  will  of  God,  fear 
has  become  an  obsolete  word.  What  is 
there  for  them  any  longer  to  fear  ?  Not 
personal  danger,  of  course,  nor  personal 
sacrifice.  When  David  Livingstone  went 
back  to  Africa,  after  getting  his  degree 
from  one  of  the  Scotch  universities,  cov- 
ered with  honors  from  every  side,  he 
compared  men's  judgment  of  mission- 


Rule  of  the  Royal  Life     ill 

ary  sacrifice  with  what  hundreds  of 
Great  Britain's  young  men  were  doing 
every  year,  going  out  in  her  armies  to 
the  uttermost  parts  of  the  earth;  and  he 
said,  "  Hundreds  of  young  men  annually 
leave  our  shores  as  cadets,  all  their  friends 
rejoice  when  they  think  of  them  bearing 
the  commission  of  our  Queen.  When 
any  dangerous  expedition  is  planned  by 
Government,  more  volunteers  apply  than 
are  necessary  to  man  it.  ...  Yet  no 
word  of  sacrifice  there.  And  why  should 
we  so  regard  all  we  give  and  do  for  the 
well-beloved  of  our  souls?  our  talk  of 
sacrifices  is  ungenerous  and  heathenish." 
There  came,  a  few  years  ago,  into  the 
office  of  one  of  the  large  magazines  in 
New  York  City,  a  young  man,  I  think 
less  than  thirty  years  of  age.  He  said 
that  he  wanted  to  go  out  to  Africa.  He 
had  been  studying  the  slave  trade  and 
wanted  to  give  what  he  had  of  life  to  the 
attempt  to  strike  one  blow  against  what 
was  left  of  it.  The  magazine  did  not 
know  him,  but  the  editor  was  pleased 
with  his  earnestness,  and  sent  the  young 
man  out  to  Africa.  Glave  plunged  in  on 


112  "Remember  Jesus  Christ" 
i 

the  east  with  a  few  companions,  worked 
his  way  steadily  north  toward  the  Zam- 
bezi, and  then  west  until  he  came  out  in 
sight  almost  of  the  Atlantic  coast,  and 
then  lay  down  in  an  African  hut  and  died 
of  fever.  But  he  was  not  afraid.  He 
was  doing,  so  far  as  he  saw  it,  the  will 
of  God  for  him. 

What  is  there  for  the  man  or  woman 
doing  the  will  of  God  to  fear  ?  Men  and 
women  often  think  that  old  John  Brown 
of  Osawatomie  was  a  crazy  man.  He 
surely  did  some  peculiar  and  unlawful 
things,  but  he  did  this  one  good  thing  at 
least.  He  furnished  an  illustration  of 
contempt  for  personal  danger,  for  per- 
sonal sacrifice,  for  the  loss  of  good  name 
and  the  good  will  of  his  fellow-men  in 
the  doing  of  what  he  believed  to  be  his 
Master's  will.  When  he  was  asked  by 
Mr.  Vallandigham  just  after  his  capture, 
"Mr.  Brown,  who  sent  you  here?"  the 
old  man  looked  up  into  his  face  and  said, 
"No  man  sent  me  here;  it  was  my  own 
prompting  and  that  of  my  Maker."  On 
November  3,  1859,  he  wrote  to  "My  dear 
wife  and  children,  every  one,"  quite 


Rule  of  the  Royal  Life     1 1 3 

calmly,  "Yesterday,  November  2,  I  was 
sentenced  to  be  hanged  on  December  2 
next.  Do  not  grieve  on  my  account.  I 
am  still  quite  cheerful.  God  bless  you! " 
On  November  8  he  wrote,  "I  can  trust 
God  with  both  the  time  and  manner  of 
my  death,  believing  as  I  now  do,  that  for 
me  at  this  time  to  seal  my  testimony  for 
God  and  humanity  with  my  blood  will 
do  vastly  more  toward  advancing  the 
cause  I  have  earnestly  endeavored  to 
promote,  than  all  I  have  done  in  my  life 
before.  I  beg  of  you  all  meekly  and 
quietly  to  submit  to  this,  not  feeling 
yourselves  in  the  least  degraded  on  that 
account.  Remember,  dear  wife  and  chil- 
dren all,  that  Jesus  of  Nazareth  suffered 
a  most  excruciating  death  on  the  cross 
as  a  felon,  under  the  most  aggravating 
circumstances.  Think  also  of  the  proph- 
ets and  apostles  and  Christians  of  formef 
days,  who  went  through  greater  tribula- 
tions than  you  or  I,  and  try  to  be  recon- 
ciled. May  God  Almighty  comfort  all 
your  hearts  and  soon  wipe  away  all  tears 
from  your  eyes.  To  Him  be  endless 
praise!  Think,  too,  of  the  crushed  mil- 


114  "Remember  Jesus  Christ" 

lions  who  '  have  no  comforter.'  I  charge 
you  all  in  your  trials  never  to  forget 
the  griefs  'of  the  poor  that  cry,  and 
of  those  that  have  none  to  help  them.'" 
And  just  a  few  days  before  his  death  he 
wrote  to  the  Hon.  D.  R.  Tilden,  "I  have 
enjoyed  remarkable  cheerfulness  and 
composure  of  mind  ever  since  my  con- 
finement; and  it  is  a  great  comfort  to 
feel  assured  that  I  am  permitted  to  die 
for  a  cause — not  merely  to  pay  the  debt 
of  nature  as  all  must.  I  feel  myself  to 
be  most  unworthy  of  so  great  distinc- 
tion. .  .  .  My  sleep  ...  is  as  sweet  as 
that  of  a  healthy,  joyous  little  infant.  . 
.  .  I  have  scarce  realized  that  I  am  in 
prison  or  in  irons  at  all.  I  certainly 
think  I  was  never  more  cheerful  in  my 
life."  He  was  not  afraid.  He  believed 
he  was  doing  the  will  of  God. 

I  think  if  you  would  look  into  your  own 
life,  you  would  find  that  any  shrinking 
that  is  there,  is  there  through  fear.  Those 
who  stand  on  the  edge  of  a  full  surrender, 
those  who  wait  for  something  that  by  no 
possibility  can  ever  come  to  them  in  this 
limit  of  life  until  they  step  out  into  the 


Rule  of  the  Royal  Life     115 

largeness  of  the  love  of  God,  those  who 
have  confused  doubts  and  the  doubting 
mind  with  the  highest  personal  life,  and 
exalted  them  over  the  personal  will,  will 
find,  if  they  will  analyze  it  to  the  last,  that 
fear  is  there,  and  that  the  fear  springs 
from  an  unwillingness  to  do  the  will  of 
God.  It  is  our  business  not  to  be  afraid. 
Last  of  all,  it  is  our  business  to  go 
straight  forward,  quietly,  honestly  doing 
the  thing  that  lies  nearest  to  our  hands, 
which  is  sure  to  be  the  will  of  God.  We 
want  the  distant  thing.  If  the  man  of 
God  would  say  to  us,  "Do  some  great 
thing,"  we  should  be  glad  to  do  it,  to 
enter  into  the  will  of  God;  but  to  go 
down  and  bathe  in  the  Jordan, — we  will 
not  demean  ourselves  by  doing  any  such 
small  thing  as  that.  Abana  and  Pharpar 
are  better  than  the  Jordan.  We  miss 
God's  large  will  for  us  because  we  train 
ourselves  away  from  the  capacity  to  dis- 
cern it  or  from  the  ability  to  do  it  if  it 
comes,  by  our  neglect  to  do  the  will  of 
God  that  lies  nearest,  the  present  will,  in 
the  surrender  of  our  own  life  to  Him,  the 
present  will,  in  that  loving  word  to  that 


li6  " Remember  Jesus  Christ" 

other  life  very  near  us  needing  help  at 
this  present  moment.  After  all,  we  may 
never  be  given  any  more  of  the  glad  and 
glorious  will  of  God  to  do  than  the  bit 
that  lies  nearest  to  us  now.  "Ah,  think 
not,"  wrote  one  whom  some  of  you  know, 
who  was  shut  out  by  physical  limitation 
from  the  larger  life  of  Christian  activity : 

"  Ah,  think  not  if  thou  art  not  called 
To  work  in  mission  field 

Of  some  far  distant  clime, 
That  thine  is  no  grand  mission. 
Every  deed  that  comes  to  thee 

In  God's  appointed  time 
Is  just  the  greatest  deed  that  thine  could  be, 
Since  God's  high  will  appointed  it  to  thee. 

*'  The  present  moment  is  divinely  sent, 
The  present  duty  is  thy  Master's  will. 

O  thou  who  longest  for  some  noble  work 
Do  thou  this  hour  thy  given  task  fulfill. 

And  thou  shall  find  though  small   at   first   it 
seemed, 

It  is  the  work  of  which  thou  oft  hast  dreamed ! " 

For  each  one  of  us 

"  The  trivial  round,  the  common  task, 
Will  furnish  all  we  ought  to  ask, 
Room  to  deny  ourselves,  a  road 
To  bring  us  daily  nearer  God." 


Rule  of  the  Royal  Life     1 1 7 

There  is  no  one  to  whom  God  will  ever 
intrust  any  large  and  glorious  will  to  do 
in  the  future  who  is  not  willing  to  do 
that  little  phase  of  God's  will  lying  very 
close  and  very  near  now. 

There  are  two  ways  in  which  we  can 
look  at  this  whole  matter  of  doing  the  will 
of  God  afar  and  the  will  of  God  near.  We 
can  look  at  it  in  the  dead  way,  as  duty- 
doing,  the  finding  out  what  our  common 
tasks  are,  what  our  present  task  in  life  is, 
and  then  setting  ourselves  to  the  doing  of 
that  task.  This  view  of  it  Mr.  Lowell  ex- 
presses finely  in  his ' '  Ode  to  Washington." 

"The  longer  on  this  earth  we  live, 
And  weigh  the  various  qualities  of  men, 

Seeing  how  most  are  fugitive 
Or  fitful  gifts  at  best  of  now  and  then, 
Wind-wavered,  corpse-lights,  daughters  of  the  fen, 

The  more  we  feel  the  high,  stern-featured  beauty 

Of  plain  devotedness  to  duty, 
Steadfast  and  still  ;  not  fed  with  mortal  praise : 

But  finding  amplest  recompense 

For  life's  ungarlanded  expense 
In  work  done  squarely  and  unwasted  days." 

But  there  is  the  better  view  of  it,  not 
as  an  impersonal  task  of  duty  assigned 


ii8  "Remember  Jesus  Christ" 

us  to  be  done,  but  as  a  fellowship  with 
the  Most  High  in  the  doing  of  His  friendly 
will,  as  a  partnership  with  the  Father  as 
close  as  the  partnership  between  Him  and 
His  Son,  in  which  He  ushers  us  with  all 
the  privileges  of  His  family  life  into  the 
warmth  and  tenderness  of  His  close  fel- 
lowship and  speaks  to  us  moment  by 
moment  in  the  doing  of  His  will. 

I  was  looking  over  very  recently  the 
personal  papers  of  Hugh  Beaver,  who 
left  so  great  an  impress  at  Northfield  the 
last  year  of  his  life,  and  I  found  two 
from  which  I  want  to  quote.  One  is  a 
letter  to  Mr.  Mott,  written  when  the  call 
came  to  him  in  his  college  in  Pennsyl- 
vania to  turn  aside  from  the  life  toward 
which  he  had  been  directing  himself  to  a 
life  of  complete  Christian  service. 

"  My  dear  Mr.  Moif  : 

"  Since  receiving  your  letter,  Mr.  Bard,  our  State 
Secretary  has  visited  us,  and  partially  as  a  result  I 
have  decided  to  go  into  the  work  for  the  present, 
giving  them  from  six  to  nine  months  per  year.  I 
had  other  plans  in  view,  but  for  about  three  years  I 
have  been  calling  for  Hymn  No.  107  of  Gospel 
Hymns  No.  5  in  about  all  the  meetings  I  have  at- 


Rule  of  the  Royal  Life     119 

tended — '  My  Jesus,  as  Thou  wilt,'  and  it  seemed 
that  the  spirit  of  the  hymn  should  be  a  guide  to  me 
in  this  the  first  call  that  has  cost  me  very  much  to 
obey.  So  you  will  find  me  next  year,  if  God  per- 
mits, doing  what  I  can,  with  His  help,  in  our  Penn- 
sylvania colleges." 

About  eight  months  afterward,  in  a 
town  in  eastern  Pennsylvania,  spending 
the  Sunday  alone,  he  had  evidently  come 
to  a  new  stage  in  his  surrender,  for  he 
wrote  this  slip,  which  was  not  found  un- 
til after  his  death. 

"  November  16,  1895. 
" '  Just  as  I  am — Thy  love  unknown 

Has  broken  every  barrier  down, 
Now  to  be  Thine,  yea,  Thine  alone, 
O  Lamb  of  God,  I  come,  I  come.' 

"This  i6th  day  of  November,  1895,  J»  Hugh  McA. 
Beaver,  do  of  my  own  free  will  give  myself,  all  that 
I  am  and  have,  entirely,  unreservedly,  and  unquali- 
fiedly to  Him,  whom  having  not  seen  I  love;  on 
whom,  though  now  I  see  Him  not,  I  believe  ;  bought 
with  a  price,  I  give  myself  to  Him  who  at  the  cost 
of  His  own  blood  purchased  me.  Now  committing 
myself  to  Him,  who  is  able  to  guard  me  from  stum- 
bling and  to  set  me  before  the  presence  of  His  glory 
without  blemish  in  exceeding  joy,  I  trust  myself  to 


12O  "Remember  Jesus  Christ" 

Him  for  all  things,  to  be  used  as   He  shall  see  fit 
where  He  shall  see  fit.     Sealed  by  the  Holy  Spirit, 
filled  with  the  peace  of  God  that  passeth  understand- 
ing, to  Him  be  all  glory,  world  without  end,  amen. 
"  (Signed)        HUGH  McA.  BEAVER." 

How  soon  he  finished  the  will  of  God,, 
serving  his  own  age  and  falling  on  sleep, 
you  know:  and  how  to  that  city,  that 
after  all,  is  not  so  very  far  away  from 
any  one  of  us,  where  the  servants  of  the 
King  see  His  face  and  serve  Him,  he  has 
gone  in,  to  come  out  no  more  forever. 
He  did  the  will  of  God. 

Will  you  do  it  ?  It  is  the  will  of  One 
to  whom  we  belong.  It  does  not  matter 
that  here  and  there  there  may  be  one  who 
has  never  acknowledged  Christ  as  Master. 
People  belong  to  Christ  whether  they  ac- 
knowledge it  or  not.  It  is  only  a  ques- 
tion as  to  whether  life  shall  be  lived  loy- 
ally and  honorably,  or  be  lived  in  insur- 
rection against  Him,  who  bought  us  with 
His  own  precious  blood.  Would  that 
we  might  come  now  to  the  point  at  which 
Jesus  stood,  when,  lifting  His  eyes  to  the 
Father  whom  He  tried  always  to  please, 
He  said,  "  I  am  come  not  to  do  My  own 


Rule  of  the  Royal  Life     121 

will,  but  the  will  of  Him  that  sent  Me." 
Would  that  we  might  say  with  one  heart, 
no  one  holding  back,  "  Lo,  we  come  to 
do  Thy  will,  O  God." 


THE  SERVING  CHRIST 


O,  Blessed  Jesus,  when  I  see  Thee  bending. 
Girt  as  a  servant,  at  Thy  servants'  feet, 

Love,  lowliness,  and  might,  in  zeal  all  blending, 
To  wash  their  dust  away,  and  make  them  meet 

To  share  Thy  feast.     I  know  not  to  adore, 

Whether  Thy  humbleness  or  glory  more. 


Meek  Jesus  !  to  my  soul  Thy  spirit  lending, 
Teach  me  to  live,  like  Thee,  in  lowly  love  ; 
With  humblest  service  all  Thy  saints  befriending, 

Until  I  serve  before  Thy  throne  above  — 
Yes  !  serving  e'en  my  foes,  for  Thou  didst  seek 
The  feet  of  Judas  in  Thy  service  meek. 

Daily  my  pilgrim  feet,  as  homeward  wending 
My  weary  way,  are  sadly  stained  with  sin  ; 

Daily  do  Thou,  Thy  precious  grace  expending, 
Wash  me  all  clean  without  and  clean  within. 

And  make  me  Jit  to  have  a  part  with  Thee 

And  Thine,  at  last,  in  heaven's  festivity. 

O  Blessed  name  of  Servant  !  comprehending 
Man's  highest  honor  in  his  humblest  name  ; 

For  Thou,  God's  Christ,  that  office  recommending, 
The  throne  of  mighty  power  didst  truly  claim; 

He  who  would  rise  like  Thee,  like  Thee  must  owe 

His  glory  only  to  his  stooping  low. 

—G.  W.  Bethune. 


THE  SERVING  CHRIST 

THE  last  night  of  our  Lord's  intercourse 
with  His  disciples  began  with  a  quarrel. 
He  was  intending  to  speak  to  His  disci- 
ples this  evening  more  sweetly,  more 
fully,  more  confidentially,  than  ever  be- 
fore; and  they  made  themselves  ready  for 
this  interview  by  a  strife  among  them- 
selves as  to  which  of  them  was  the  great- 
est. 

He  had  sent  two  of  them  to  make  ready 
the  Passover,  and  apparently  the  other 
apostles  had  followed  these,  Jesus  Him- 
self intending  to  come  later  to  the  Supper. 
I  suppose  they  were  already  assigning  to 
themselves  the  seats  at  this  feast  with 
Jesus,  and  were  unable  to  agree  as  to 
which  should  have  the  seat  of  honor,  and 
which  should  take  the  seat  most  remote 
from  Jesus.  They  ought  to  have  known 
better  than  to  have  quarrelled  over  this 
question,  for  they  had  raised  this  very  is- 

135 


126  "Remember  Jesus  Christ" 

sue  several  times  before  in  their  associa- 
tion with  Jesus,  and  each  time  He  had 
given  them  an  answer  to  it  which  ought 
to  have  shown  them  long  before  this 
that  the  standards  which  prevailed  in 
Christ's  company  were  different  from 
those  which  prevailed  among  men.  That 
answer  should  have  rendered  impossible 
any  such  quarrel  as  this  of  the  last  even- 
ing, producing  a  spirit  to  which  Jesus 
could  not  disclose  those  things  which  He 
was  longing  to  reveal. 

Some  months  before  they  had  left 
Galilee,  the  disciples  had  quarrelled  among 
themselves  over  this  matter.  As  they 
came  near  to  Capernaum,  Mark  tells  us, 
they  strove  among  themselves  as  to  which 
of  them  was  greatest,  and  when  He  was 
in  the  house  with  them  in  Capernaum, 
He  asked  them,  "What  were  ye  reason- 
ing in  the  way?  But  they  held  their 
peace  for  they  had  disputed  one  with 
another  in  the  way,  who  was  the  great- 
est. And  He  sat  down,  and  called  the 
twelve;  and  He  saith  unto  them,  If  any 
man  would  be  first,  he  shall  be  last  of  all, 
and  minister  of  all.  And  He  took  a  little 


The  Serving  Christ          127 

child  and  set  him  in  the  midst  of  them; 
and  taking  him  in  His  arms,  He  said  unto 
them,  Whosoever  shall  receive  one  of 
such  little  children  in  My  name,  receiveth 
Me ;  and  whosoever  receiveth  Me,  receiv- 
eth Him  that  sent  Me."  And  as  though  He 
knew  that  they  needed  a  repetition  of  this 
lesson,  only  a  few  days  passed  before  He 
once  again  took  up  little  children  in  His 
arms  and  blessed  them,  and  said,  with 
great  point,  to  the  apostles,  that  except 
they  had  the  spirit  of  these  little  children, 
who  were  nestling  in  His  arms,  they 
should  never  see  the  kingdom  of  God. 
And  yet  both  of  these  lessons  were  fol- 
lowed, after  but  a  few  days,  by  a  request 
that  came  from  James  and  John,  two  of 
the  best  of  the  apostles,  which  showed 
that  they  had  wholly  failed  as  yet  to  dis- 
cern the  Lord's  teaching.  They  came  to 
Jesus  asking  Him  to  do  a  certain  thing 
for  them,  and  He  asked  them  what  their 
request  was,  and  they  said,  that  one 
might  sit  on  the  left  and  the  other  on  the 
right  hand  with  Him  in  His  glory.  He 
asked  if  they  were  able  to  drink  of  the 
cup  that  He  was  to  drink  of,  and  be  bap- 


128  "Remember  Jesus  Christ" 

tized  with  the  baptism  that  He  was  to  be 
baptized  with,  and,  little  thinking  what 
they  said,  they  replied,  "We  are  able." 
And  He  answered,  "  You  may  drink  of  My 
cup,  and  be  baptized  with  My  baptism, 
but  to  assign  to  you  a  place  on  My  left 
hand  or  on  My  right  hand  is  not  Mine  to 
give.  It  will  be  given  to  those  for  whom 
those  places  have  been  prepared. "  When 
the  other  apostles  learned  of  this  request, 
Mark  tells  us,  they  were  highly  indignant 
that  James  and  John  had  tried  to  antici- 
pate them,  and  they  came  to  Jesus,  find- 
ing fault  with  them,  and  He  said  to  them, 
"You  know  that  they  which  are  ac- 
counted to  rule  over  the  Gentiles  lord  it 
over  them,  and  their  great  ones  exercise 
authority  over  them,  but  it  shall  not  be  so 
among  you;  but  whosoever  will  be  first 
among  you  shall  be  servant  of  all,  for  even 
the  Son  of  Man  came  not  to  be  minis- 
tered unto,  but  to  minister,  and  to  give 
His  life  a  ransom  for  many." 

Three  times  then,  within  a  few  weeks, 
Jesus  had  repeated  this  lesson  of  the  true 
standard  of  greatness,  which  was  to  be 
observed  in  the  kingdom  of  God;  and 


The  Serving  Christ          129 

yet  so  quickly  did  they  forget  it,  that  but 
a  few  days  afterward,  as  they  drew  nigh 
unto  Jerusalem,  Simon  Peter  turned  to 
Jesus,  after  He  had  made  some  remark, 
to  say,  "  Lord,  we  have  left  our  homes, 
everything  we  have,  and  have  followed 
Thee.  What  are  we  to  have?"  And 
our  Lord  replied,  with  that  sublime  self- 
restraint,  that  sublime  suppression  of 
what  He  might  have  said,  that  character- 
ized so  much  of  His  teaching,  "  Verily,  I 
say  unto  you,  there  is  no  man  who  has 
left  house,  or  brethren,  or  sisters,  or 
father,  or  mother,  or  wife,  or  children, 
or  lands,  for  My  sake,  who  shall  not  re- 
ceive manifold  more  in  this  time  and  in 
the  world  to  come,  eternal  life."  And 
now,  after  all  this,  the  very  last  night  of 
all,  they  quarrelled  again  as  to  which  of 
them  should  be  first. 

It  must  have  been  with  infinite  sorrow, 
with  infinite  pity,  that  our  Master  walked 
into  that  room  and  marked  the  spirit  that 
filled  the  place.  First  of  all  He  knew  it 
was  necessary  that  He  should  bring  them 
to  the  spirit  that  was  the  condition  of  His 
further  revelations  to  them,  and  so  when 


130  "Remember  Jesus  Christ" 

supper  was  ended  He  Himself  laid  aside 
His  garments,  and  girded  Himself,  and 
took  up  a  towel  and  began  to  wash  the 
disciples'  feet.  He  came  last  of  all,  ap- 
parently, to  Simon  Peter.  I  suppose  He 
had  noticed  that  Simon  had  been  most 
forward  in  claiming  the  first  place,  and 
so  He  allowed  Simon  to  suffer  longest 
from  that  vision  of  the  humility  of  the 
Highest  One,  of  the  lowliness  of  the  Son 
of  God,  washing  the  feet  of  His  sin- 
stained  disciples.  When  at  last  He  had 
completed  His  task,  and  had  washed  the 
feet  even  of  Judas  and  Simon  Peter  with 
the  rest,  He  turned  to  them  and  said, 
"Know  ye  what  I  have  done  to  you? 
Ye  call  Me  Master  and  Lord:  and  ye  say 
well ;  for  so  I  am.  If  I  then,  your  Lord 
and  Master,  have  washed  your  feet,  ye 
also  ought  to  wash  one  another's  feet. 
For  I  have  given  you  an  example,  that 
ye  should  do  as  I  have  done  to  you. 
Verily,  verily,  I  say  unto  you,  the  serv- 
ant is  not  greater  than  his  lord;  neither 
he  that  is  sent  greater  than  he  that  sent 
him."  "The  kings  of  the  Gentiles  have 
lordship  over  them,  and  they  that  have 


The  Serving  Christ         131 

authority  over  them  are  called  bene- 
'factors;  but  ye  shall  not  be  so;  but  he 
that  is  the  greater  among  you,  let  him 
become  as  the  younger;  and  he  that  is 
the  chief,  as  he  that  doth  serve.  For 
whether  is  greater,  he  that  sitteth  at  meat 
or  he  that  serveth  ?  Is  not  he  that  sitteth 
at  meat  ?  but  I  am  in  the  midst  of  you  as 
one  that  serveth."  Perhaps  He  meant 
those  words  to  refer,  first  of  all  to  the 
scene  that  the  disciples  had  just  witnessed, 
in  which  He  had  washed  their  feet.  They 
refused  to  wash  one  another's  feet.  "Ye 
refuse  each  one  of  you  to  be  accounted 
the  servant  of  the  rest.  I  am  among  you 
as  he  that  serveth." 

They  had  a  broader  reference  than  this, 
however,  and  were  meant  to  apply,  also, 
to  the  great  act  of  service  that  He  was 
about  to  perform  not  many  hours  after 
this,  when,  stretched  out  upon  the  cross, 
with  the  cruel  print  of  the  crown  of 
thorns  still  on  His  brow,  He  was  as  the 
mighty  servant  of  God,  and  the  mighty 
servant  of  man,  to  put  His  shoulder  un- 
der the  world's  sin  and  bear  it  all  for 
us. 


132  "Remember  Jesus  Christ" 

But  doubtless  His  words  had  a  wider 
reference  than  this  even,  and  were  in- 
tended in  some  real  sense  to  be  a  sum- 
mary of  the  life  that  had  been  lived  before 
these  men  and  that  was  now  to  be  closed 
before  them  in  such  humiliation  of  glory. 
From  the  beginning  to  the  end  it  was  a 
life  that  could  not  be  better  described 
than  in  these  words  of  His,  in  the  midst 
of  His  disciples,  on  the  last  night  of  His 
earthly  fellowship  with  them,  "I  am  in 
the  midst  of  you  as  one  that  serveth." 

In  calling  Himself  preeminently  a  serv- 
ant, our  Lord  was  not  lowering  His  title 
to  a  high  place  in  the  esteem  of  men. 
" Son  of  Man,"  is  a  glorious  title.  "Son 
of  God"  is  a  title  yet  more  glorious. 
Lord,  Saviour,  King;  to  all  of  these  titles 
Christ  has  a  right  in  the  lives  of  those 
who  call  themselves  His;  but  besides  all 
these  titles,  and  as  sweet  as  they,  explain- 
ing every  other  title  of  His,  may  be 
placed  this  one,  "The  Servant  of  man." 
"I  am  in  the  midst  of  you  as  he  that 
serveth."  In  calling  Himself  a  servant, 
our  Lord  only  took  His  place,  like  the 
true  Son  of  Man  that  He  was,  among 


The  Serving  Christ         133 

the  other  true  sons  of  men.  All  those 
who  before  His  days  had  endeavored  to 
serve  their  own  generations  by  the  will 
of  God  had  called  themselves  servants 
also.  The  last  chapter  of  Deuteronomy, 
which  tells  us  of  the  death  of  Moses,  the 
man  of  God,  relates  it  in  these  words: 
"  So  Moses  the  servant  of  the  Lord  died, 
and  He  buried  him  in  the  land  of  Moab, 
in  a  valley  over  against  Beth-peor," 

"  And  no  man  knows  that  sepulchre, 

And  no  man  saw  it  e'er, 
For  the  angels  of  God  upturned  the  sod, 
And  laid  the  dead  man  there." 

And  he  kept  that  title  even  after,  lifted  out 
of  his  old  life  of  service,  he  entered  the  new 
life  of  glory.  When  John,  straining  with 
ecstatic  vision  from  Patmos,  looked  off 
upon  that  great  city  which  hath  no  need 
of  any  light,  "for  the  glory  of  God  did 
lighten  it,  and  the  Lamb  is  the  light 
thereof,"  he  saw  there  a  great  multitude 
who  had  come  up  from  the  dominion  of 
the  beast,  who  stood  by  the  shore  of  the 
glassy  sea,  with  the  harps  of  God  in  their 
hands ;  and  they  sang  the  song  of  Moses, 


134  "Remember  Jesus  Christ" 

the  servant  of  God,  and  the  song  of  the 
Lamb.  So  too  that  great  servant  of  God 
in  the  years  that  came  afterward,  David, 
the  king  of  Israel,  called  himself  also 
God's  servant. 

And  have  you  ever  noticed  that  no 
man  writes  in  the  New  Testament  who 
tells  us  in  any  place  that  he  was  one  of  the 
New  Testament  writers,  who  does  not  call 
himself  the  bondslave  of  Jesus  Christ? 
Paul  begins  the  Epistle  to  the  Romans, 
"  Paul,  a  servant  of  Jesus  Christ,  called  to 
be  an  apostle."  Simon  Peter  begins  his 
Second  Epistle,  "Simon  Peter,  a  servant 
and  apostle  of  Jesus  Christ."  James  be- 
gins his  Epistle  with  the  same  confession, 
"James,  a  servant  of  God,  and  of  the 
Lord  Jesus  Christ."  And  Jude  goes  so 
far,  according  to  the  old  version,  in  the 
beginning  of  his  Epistle,  as  to  call  himself 
"Jude,  the  servant  of  Jesus  Christ."  And 
although  in  no  place  in  his  Gospel  does 
John  call  himself  so,  yet  when  he  begins 
the  Revelation,  he  applies  the  same  title 
to  himself.  "The  revelation  of  Jesus 
Christ,  which  God  gave  unto  him,  to 
show  unto  His  servants  things  which 


The  Serving  Christ         135" 

must  shortly  come  to  pass;  and  He  sent 
and  signified  it  by  His  angel  unto  His 
servant  John." 

In  this  long  line  of  God's  true  disciples, 
who  through  all  the  ages  have  attempted 
to  do  His  will,  Jesus  Christ  took  His  place 
as  the  greatest  and  highest  and  holiest, 
and  yet  the  humblest  and  the  lowliest  of 
them  all,  when  He  said,  "I  am  in  the 
midst  of  you  as  one  that  serveth." 

The  noblest  picture  of  Jesus  Christ  as 
a  servant  that  the  Bible  contains,  strange 
to  say,  was  not  written  by  any  one  of 
those  who  saw  Jesus  in  the  flesh.  It  is 
the  picture  that  the  sublimest  of  all  the 
prophets,  Isaiah,  drew,  when,  lifting  up 
his  eyes  in  one  of  his  holiest  and  fullest 
visions,  he  beheld  the  matchless  servant 
of  God,  in  whom  God  was  well  pleased, 
whom  He  has  raised  up  by  His  own 
power  to  sit  in  judgment  on  the  earth, 
and  for  whose  return  we  are  waiting. 
And  there  were  five  characteristics  of 
Christ  as  a  servant  that  specially  appealed 
to  the  Prophet  Isaiah,  looking  forward  to 
the  Messiah  that  was  to  come.  Matthew, 
who  knew  Jesus,  regarded  this  vision  as 


136  "Remember  Jesus  Christ" 

so  real  a  description  of  Him,  that  when 
he  was  taking  up  those  prophecies  that 
were  aptest  in  their  demonstration  of  the 
Messiahship  of  Jesus,  he  gave  special 
prominence  to  this  one  from  the  forty- 
second  chapter  of  Isaiah. 

The  first  of  these  features  of  Isaiah's 
vision  was  this:  that  Christ  made  the 
touchstone  of  His  service  the  pleasure  of 
God.  "Behold,  My  servant,  My  elect 
one,  in  whom  I  am  well  pleased,  in 
whom  My  soul  delights."  He  did  not 
measure  His  life's  duties,  He  did  not  de- 
termine what  He  would  do  in  life  by 
asking  whether  or  not  this  course  or 
that  course  pleased  Himself.  He  referred 
everything  to  the  pleasure  of  God.  "I 
came  down  from  heaven,"  He  said,  "not 
to  do  My  own  will,  but  the  will  of  Him 
that  sent  Me;  and  He  that  sent  Me  is  with 
Me.  The  Father  hath  not  left  Me  alone, 
for  I  do  always  those  things  that  please 
Him."  And  one  of  the  apostles,  who 
never  saw  Him,  looking  back  over  all 
that  he  had  been  told  of  that  matchless 
life,  was  impressed  by  nothing  more  than 
by  this  fact,  that  Jesus  Christ  sought  ever 


The  Serving  Christ         137 

to  please  God.  "Even  Christ,"  he  said, 
"pleased  not  Himself." 

And  God  was  delighted  to  have  it  so. 
When  Jesus  went  down  to  His  baptism, 
and  the  dove  abode  upon  Him,  there 
came  a  voice  from  heaven  that  said, 
"This  is  My  beloved  Son,  in  whom  I  am 
well  pleased."  And  when  later,  on  the 
brow  of  that  hill  on  which  He  was  trans- 
figured, His  raiment  became  all  white 
and  glistening,  as  no  fuller  on  earth  could 
whiten  it,  and  His  face  was  so  dazzling 
that  the  apostles  had  to  turn  their  faces 
away,  there  came  a  voice,  saying,  "This 
is  My  beloved  Son,  My  chosen  one;  hear 
ye  Him." 

The  touchstone  of  all  true  service  must 
be  the  pleasure  of  God.  Some  one  pro- 
poses a  certain  course  of  action  to  us, 
and  we  say,  "  That  would  be  very  pleas- 
ant." But  pleasant  to  whom?  To  us? 
That  is  no  rule  of  life.  Pleasing  only  to 
God.  What  pleases  Him  must  determine 
the  course  of  my  life.  And  truly  there  is 
no  bondage  in  submitting  everything  to 
such  a  test.  There  seems  to  me  to  be 
rather  the  largest  joy  and  liberty  in  the 


138  "Remember  Jesus  Christ" 

very  power  to  please  God;  that  I,  poor, 
weak,  sinful,  unkind,  can  give  Him  pleas- 
ure, the  infinite,  the  eternal  One,  who 
opens  His  hand  and  supplies  the  need  of 
every  living  thing;  that  I,  here  in  my 
little  place,  by  shunning  that  and  loving 
this,  by  rejecting  that  and  pursuing  this, 
can  actually  bring  pleasure  home  to  the 
heart  of  Him  who  rules  the  lives  of  all 
men,  what  can  more  dignify  life?  Jesus 
Christ's  service  was  so  acceptable  to  God, 
because  He  made  its  acceptability  to  God 
the  touchstone  of  His  service. 

The  second  thing  that  Isaiah  foresaw 
about  the  service  of  our  Lord  was  its 
constancy.  "He  shall  not  fail  nor  be  dis- 
couraged," Isaiah  says.  Now,  truly,  if 
there  has  been  one  worker  in  this  world 
who  had  good  cause  to  be  discouraged, 
it  was  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ.  His  own 
family  refused  to  believe  on  Him.  His 
own  disciples  totally  misunderstood  Him. 
The  very  last  night  of  His  life  they  quar- 
relled together  when  He  was  coming  into 
their  presence  to  give  them  their  deepest 
blessing;  and  the  last  confession  of  faith 
that  they  uttered  was  far  short  of  the 


The  Serving  Christ          139 

first  confession  of  faith  by  John  the  Bap- 
tist. And  the  great  world  that  He  came 
to  save,  instead  of  loving  Him,  pressed 
down  upon  His  brow  a  crown  of  thorns, 
and  crucified  Him  upon  a  cruel  cross. 
Yet  from  the  beginning  to  the  end,  His 
service  was  as  constant  as  His  unselfish- 
ness and  His  love. 

After  Sir  Battle  Frere,  the  great  African 
explorer,  had  been  away  many  years,  his 
wife  got  a  letter  from  him,  saying  that 
he  was  expecting  to  reach  home  on  a 
certain  train;  and  she  called  one  of  the 
servants  and  said,  "You  must  go  down 
with  me  to  meet  Sir  Bartle."  The  man 
had  entered  the  service  of  the  house  since 
Sir  Bartle  went  away,  and  had  never  seen 
him,  so  he  said,  "  How  am  I  to  know 
him?"  Said  Lady  Frere,  "Look  for  a 
tall  gentleman  helping  some  one,  and  you 
cannot  miss  him."  And  the  servant  went 
down  to  the  station  and  looked  for  a  tall 
gentleman  helping  some  one.  After  wait- 
ing a  short  time  he  saw  a  tall  man  help- 
ing an  old  lady  out  of  a  railway  carriage 
and  he  went  to  him  and  said,  "Are  you 
Sir  Bartle ? "  "I  am,"  was  the  reply.  He 


140  "Remember  Jesus  Christ' 

was  "a  tall  man  always  helping  people. '' 
I  don't  know  whether  our  Lord  was  a 
tall  man  or  not,  but  I  know  He  was  al- 
ways helping  people.  Frere  had  for  the 
rule  of  his  life  the  serving  spirit  of  the 
words  that  David  Livingstone  wrote  to 
one  of  his  sons  when  he  went  from 
home  back  to  Africa;  "George,"  wrote 
he,  "fear  God.  and  v/ork  hard."  Work 
in  the  fear  of  God  is  service.  And  David 
Livingstone  learned  the  secret  of  this 
constancy  of  service  and  was  willing  to 
pour  out  his  life  without  any  withhold- 
ing after  the  example  of  his  master, 
Christ. 

And  the  third  mark  of  Jesus  Christ's 
service  that  impressed  both  Isaiah  and 
Matthew  was  this:  the  humility  and  low- 
liness of  that  service.  "  He  shall  not 
strive,  neither  shall  He  cry  out,  nor  shall 
His  voice  be  heard  in  the  street.  The  smok- 
ing flax  shall  He  not  quench,  a  bruised 
reed  shall  He  not  break."  So  quiet  would 
be  the  touch  of  the  ideal  Servant  when 
He  came.  And  He  Himself  did  not  hesi- 
tate to  point  out  this  trait  of  character  in 
His  service.  "  Come  unto  Me,"  He  said, 


The  Serving  Christ         141 

"all  ye  that  labor  and  are  heavy  laden, 
and  1  will  give  you  rest.  Take  My  yoke 
upon  you  and  learn  of  Me;  for  I  am  meek 
and  lowly  in  heart:  and  ye  shall  find  rest 
unto  your  souls.  For  My  yoke  is  easy 
and  My  burden  is  light."  And  those  who 
were  associated  with  Him  loved  in  after 
life  to  remind  themselves  of  nothing  quite 
so  much  as  this,  that  their  Lord  Jesus  had 
been  a  gentle  and  a  sweet  and  a  kindly 
Lord  to  them,  a  mild,  meek,  patient,  lov- 
ing, gentle  spirit,  "the  first  true  gentle- 
man that  ever  breathed."  Simon  Peter, 
with  His  life  in  mind,  speaks  to  those  to 
whom  he  writes  in  his  Second  Epistle, 
telling  them  not  to  clothe  themselves 
with  fine  raiment  and  jewels  and  hand- 
some attire,  but  to  put  on  the  garment  of 
a  meek  and  quiet  spirit.  And  when  the 
Apostle  Paul,  who  had  never  seen  Jesus 
on  earth,  but  was  impressed  again  and 
again  with  the  loving  gentleness  that 
Jesus  showed  to  him  in  all  the  mistakes 
and  failures  of  his  life,  desired  to  appeal 
to  the  Corinthians,  he  said,  "I  beseech 
you  by  the  meekness  and  gentleness  of 
Christ."  He  never  said  one  harsh  word. 


142  "Remember  Jesus  Christ" 

The  cry  that  fills  the  twenty-third  chapter 
of  Matthew  was  not  so  much  an  invective 
hurled  against  the  people  as  it  was  a  sad, 
pathetic,  ominous  judgment  pronounced 
upon  those  to  whom  life  had  been  offered 
and  who  had  turned  away  from  it,  who, 
having  been  led  to  the  doors  of  the  holy 
kingdom  had  refused  to  cross  over  its 
threshold. 

There  is  a  great  secret  here.  What 
pleasure  is  there  in  pride  ?  What  satis- 
faction is  there  in  esteeming  yourself 
highly  ?  What  delight  is  there  in  ac- 
counting yourself  of  more  value  than 
those  among  whom  you  are  thrown? 
"In  lowliness  of  mind,"  wrote  Paul  to 
the  Philippians,  "let  each  count  other 
better  than  himself."  I  believe  the 
Apostle  Paul  meant  that  each  Christian 
man  should  be  marked  by  just  this  spirit, 
the  spirit  that  leads  him  to  esteem  every 
other  better  than  himself;  that  longs  more 
to  have  others  advanced  and  given  posts  of 
honor,  than  to  claim  them  for  one's  self; 
that  is  anxious  to  shrink  away  into  the 
hidden  places  in  order  that  others  may  be 
heard  and  seen.  "  Let  every  man  esteem 


The  Serving  Christ         143 

every  other  man  better  than  himself,"  as 
He  did  "who  made  Himself  of  no  reputa- 
tion, and  took  upon  Him  the  form  of  a 
servant  and  became  obedient  unto  death, 
even  the  death  of  the  cross." 

I  remember  very  well  six  or  seven 
years  ago,  a  visit  to  a  college  in  the  South, 
when  I  was  entertained  by  the  president 
of  the  college.  It  was  a  poor  little  col- 
lege, but  it  sought  to  do  the  work  of 
God,  and  it  was  trying  to  help  many  to 
do  His  will.  There  were  not  very  many 
rooms  in  it,  so  the  president  of  the  col- 
lege gave  me  his  room.  I  was  waked  up 
very  early  in  the  morning  by  hearing 
some  one  come  into  the  room.  I  did  not 
want  to  appear  inquisitive  at  all,  so  I  lay 
quietly  without  speaking  out;  and  I  saw 
the  president  of  the  college  come  in,  and 
he  took  my  boots,  and  I  saw  him  take 
them  to  an  adjoining  room,  and  kneel 
down  there  on  the  floor  and  black  my 
boots.  That  act  went  right  to  my  heart. 
It  showed  the  character  of  that  man. 
God  has  exalted  him  greatly  in  his  church. 
His  was  too  humble  and  true  a  spirit 
for  God  to  keep  in  a  low  place,  and  He 


144  "Remember  Jesus  Christ" 

has  lifted  him  up  to  a  position  of  great 
honor.  He  esteemed  other  men  better 
than  himself.  "And  he  that  humbleth 
himself  shall  be  exalted." 

Though  Jesus  had  a  right  to  wear  the 
crown  of  the  eternal  city  on  His  brow, 
He  willingly  laid  it  all  aside;  though  the 
foxes  had  holes,  and  birds  had  nests,  He 
had  no  place  to  lay  His  head;  though 
He  was  rich,  for  our  sakes  He  became 
poor,  that  we  through  His  poverty  might 
be  rich. 

And  the  fourth  feature  that  Isaiah  and 
Matthew  both  noted  in  the  service  of  our 
Lord  Jesus  Christ  was  the  breadth  of  it, 
• — the  absolute,  unlimited  breadth  of  it. 
He  was  to  establish  judgment  in  the 
earth.  He  was  to  send  forth  judgment 
to  the  Gentiles,  and  the  far  distant  isles 
were  to  wait  for  His  law.  You  could  not 
tie  Christ  down  to  a  small  life.  He  went 
on  one  of  the  first  Sabbath  days  after  His 
temptation  to  Nazareth,  His  own  home, 
into  the  synagogue  and  began  to  preach, 
and  when  He  came  in  His  sermon  to  the 
missionary  reference  and  pointed  out  that 
in  the  days  of  Elisha  there  had  been  many 


The  Serving  Christ 


tepers  in  Israel  but  none  were  cleansed 
;;ave  Naaman,  the  Syrian;  that  although 
jn  the  days  of  Elijah  there  were  many 
widows  in  Israel  not  one  of  them  was 
visited  except  a  woman  of  Sarepta,  a  city 
of  Sidon,  who  was  a  heathen  woman; 
they  all  rose  up  filled  with  wrath  and 
^ast  Him  out  of  their  city,  and  would 
have  hurled  Him  over  a  precipice,  except 
that  He  passed  by  and  made  His  escape. 
He  came  to  reconcile  to  God,  not  a  small 
locality  only,  but  the  whole  world  ;  that 
He  might  carry  the  sins  of  great  multi- 
tudes. "He  is  the  propitiation  for  our 
sins,  and  not  for  ours  only,  but  also  for  the 
whole  world." 

We  need  to  learn  this  thing  in  our  own 
Jives  of  service.  Let  us  not  be  narrow  as 
we  go  out  into  the  world.  Let  our  hearts 
be  large  enough  to  take  in  all  the  rest  of 
Christ's  disciples,  no  matter  by  what 
name  they  call  themselves.  Let  us  be 
large  enough  to  sympathize  with  those 
who  disagree  with  us,  only  so  they  hold 
with  us  the  great  Head  of  us  all.  Let  us 
remember  also  that  there  can  be  no  real 
Christlike  service  that  is  as  broad  as 


146  "Remember  Jesus  Christ" 

Christ's  in  the  spirit  of  it,  that  does  not 
go  out  to  those  uttermost  parts  of  the 
earth  of  which  He  was  speaking  when 
the  clouds  came  down  and  from  the 
brow  of  Olivet  caught  Him  up  from  the 
sight  of  men,  until  that  great  day  when 
He  shall  come  back  again,  and  we  shall 
see  Him  as  He  is,  and  be  like  Him. 

It  is  said  that  scarcely  one  man  out  of  a 
dozen  visiting  Calcutta  asks  to  be  shown 
the  house  where  Warren  Hastings  lived 
when  *he  was  in  India,  scarcely  one  man 
out  of  a  hundred  the  houses  where 
Thackeray  was  born,  and  Macaulay  lived, 
but  scones  upon  scores  want  to  be  taken 
out  to  the  little  Dutch  burying  ground  of 
Serampore  to  be  shown  the  grave  of 
William  Carey,  the  last  resting-place  of 
the  cobbler  who  re-taught  to  the  world  the 
glory  of  that  service  which  is  as  broad  as 
mankind,  as  broad  as  the  love  of  the 
heart  of  Him  who  came  not  to  condemn 
but  to  save  the  world. 

And  the  last  thing  about  the  service  of 
our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  that  especially  fixed 
the  attention  of  both  Isaiah  and  Matthew, 
was  this;  the  tremendous  power  of  it. 


The  Serving  Christ         147 

"I  will  put  my  spirit  upon  Him  and  He 
shall  bring  forth  judgment  to  the  Gen- 
tiles." When  men  came  to  John  the 
Baptist,  supposing  that  he  was  the  one 
who  was  to  bring  the  great  blessing,  He 
said,  "I  indeed  baptize  you  with  water, 
but  He  that  cometh  after  me  is  mightier 
than  I,  whose  shoes  I  am  not  worthy  to 
stoop  down  and  unloose;  and  when  He 
is  come,  He  shall  baptize  you  with  the 
Holy  Ghost,  and  with  fire."  "I  will  put 
My  spirit  upon  Him," — so  that  the  service 
which  that  matchless  servant  renders 
shall  be  the  most  powerful  service  of  all 
time.  And  it  was  so.  The  temple 
police  came  to  arrest  Him,  and  they  went 
back  to  the  Sanhedrin  that  had  sent  them, 
and  when  they  were  asked  why  they  did 
not  bring  Him,  they  replied,  "  Never  man 
spake  like  this  man."  The  throng  came 
up  to  the  garden  of  Gethsemane  to  take 
Him,  and  when  He  came  out  with  sim- 
ple, quiet,  peaceful  aspect,  they  went 
backward,  falling  over  one  another,  and 
tumbling  with  fear  to  the  ground. 

All  those  who  joined  their  lives  to  Him 
rejoiced  at  nothing  more  than  this,  that 


148  "Remember  Jesus  Christ" 

they  beheld  mighty  and  glorious  works 
done  by  Him.  There  was  no  weakness 
in  the  service  of  our  Lord.  It  was  a  life 
of  gentle,  but  intense,  unwithholding 
service.  He  spared  Himself  not  at  all. 

I  received  a  letter  some  time  ago  from 
some  Chinamen  in  the  city  of  Ning-Po. 
It  was  about  a  friend  who  had  just  died. 
It  was  a  very  odd  letter;  some  good 
friends  of  theirs  and  mine  had  translated 
it.  And  in  their  letter  they  were  express- 
ing their  great  sense  of  loss  at  the  death 
of  Mr.  McKee;  and  the  sentence  that 
struck  me  most  was  this:  "We  can  tes- 
tify that  while  he  was  with  us  he  spared 
himself  not  at  all."  He  spared  himself 
not  at  all.  It  was  the  testimony  that 
Sir  Robert  Ker  Porter  bore  of  Henry  Mar- 
tyn,  after  he  came  back  from  Persia.  As  he 
travelled  in  southern  Persia,  he  heard 
often  of  the  young  Englishman  who  had 
been  there  some  years  before.  Some 
said  they  could  remember  that  young 
Englishman,  a  frail  man,  enfeebled  by 
disease,  who  had  come  to  their  city  and 
had  sat  down  among  their  learned  men 
and  had  presented  such  arguments  as 


The  Serving  Christ          149 

they  were  not  able  to  meet.  Years  later 
another  traveler  met  at  Shiraz  an  old  man 
with  a  Testament,  given  to  him.  Written 
on  the  fly  leaf  were  these  words,  "  From 
Henry  Martyn.  There  is  joy  in  the  pres- 
ence of  the  angels  of  God  over  one  sinner 
that  repenteth."  He  did  not  stop  there, 
but  turned  his  way  west;  and  at  the  age 
of  thirty-two,  having,  as  the  quaint 
phrase  of  the  wisdom  of  Solomon  puts 
it,  "fulfilled  a  long  time  in  a  short  time," 
he  lay  down  at  Tocat  and  died.  He 
spared  not  himself.  He  fufilled  his  early 
desire,  "  Let  me  burn  out  for  God."  And 
any  one  who  will  walk  in  the  footsteps  of 
Christ  as  a  servant  must  spare  not  him- 
self at  all. 

Our  Lord's  service  was  a  service  of 
fidelity  to  the  pleasure  of  God,  of  con- 
stancy, of  lowliness,  of  breadth  of  sym- 
pathy, of  power;  these  things  marked 
Him,  who  was  among  men  as  one  who 
served.  He  was  not  ashamed  of  it.  It  did 
not  grate  upon  Him  to  be  called  a  serv- 
ant. You  and  I  are  often  ashamed  to  be 
seen  serving.  We  take  the  chief  places 
\n  the  synagogues,  we  desire  the  highest 


.'5o  "Remember  Jesus  Christ" 

places  at  the  feasts,  we  do  not  want  to  be 
counted  among  those  who  serve — but 
our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  showed  through 
the  whole  of  His  life  that  He  came  "not 
to  be  ministered  unto  but  to  minister,  and 
to  give  His  life  a  ransom  for  many." 

And  He  finished  His  work.  No  other 
servant  ever  did.  Neither  you  nor  I  ever 
finished  one  piece  of  work  that  we  put 
our  hands  to.  All  our.  work  is  rough 
edged ;  and  the  man  who  comes  to  deal 
with  it  after  we  have  left  it  finds  almost 
as  much  difficulty  in  touching  it  as  he 
would  have  in  starting  a  new  work.  It 
is  ragged  with  splinters.  But  our  Lord, 
finished  His  work.  "  I  have  finished  the 
work  which  Thou  hast  given  Me  to  do." 
And  one  of  His  last  cries  from  the  cross 
was  but  the  expression  of  the  same  truth; 
"It  is  finished.  It  is  finished."  Up  to 
the  very  end  of  His  life  He  was  working, 
not  willing  to  let  even  the  last  moments 
of  it  slip  by.  Even  in  the  agony  of  His 
suffering  on  the  cruel  tree,  He  opened 
the  gates  of  the  kingdom  of  heaven  to  a 
dying  thief,  and  He  made  a  new  home 
for  His  mother. 


The  Serving  Christ         151 

And  so  all  men  who  have  learned 
Christ's  spirit  and  who  have  begun  to 
serve  as  Christ  served,  desire  to  finish 
their  work.  When  John  Eliot  lay  dying, 
a  friend  came  into  his  room,  and  found 
the  wonderful  old  man  teaching  a  little 
Indian  child  his  alphabet.  And  the  friend 
said,  "Don't  you  think  you  have  earned 
a  rest?"  And  he  replied,  "  I  don't  think 
I  have.  I  prayed  the  Lord  a  long  time 
ago  to  make  me  useful  in  my  sphere, 
and  He  heard  my  prayer,  and  now  that  1 
am  no  longer  young,  He  leaves  me 
strength  enough  to  teach  this  little  Indian 
child  its  alphabet."  The  old  man  of 
eighty  was  determined,  if  it  was  a  possi- 
ble thing,  that  he  would  finish  his  work 
for  God. 

How  do  you  feel  about  these  things  ? 
Have  you  ever  written  above  your  own 
life,  "I  am  among  men  as  one  who 
serves  "  ?  Have  you  ever  written  on  the 
fly  leaf  of  your  Bible,  "Like  the  Son  of 
Man,  I  am  here  not  to  be  ministered  unto 
but  to  minister,  and  to  give  my  life  as  a 
ransom  for  many  "  ?  The  glory  of  life 
is  not  to  gain.  The  glory  of  life  is  to  be 


152  "Remember  Jesus  Christ" 

of  use.  The  glory  of  life  is  not  to  get 
places  of  authority,  but  to  put  yourself 
under  the  authority  of  others.  The 
crown  of  a  useful  life  is  not  to  acquire 
as  much  influence  as  possible.  It  is  to 
throw  away  as  much  influence  as  you 
can,  letting  it  disappear  into  the  lives  of 
other  men  and  other  women.  The  glory 
of  life  consists  in  laying  down  your  life 
for  your  friends.  The  greater  life  does 
not  consist  in  more  Bible  study.  The 
greater  life  does  not  consist  in  clearer 
appreciation  of  spiritual  truth.  All  these 
things  are  good  and  have  their  places. 
But  greater  life  hath  no  man  than  this, 
that  a  man  should  lay  down  his  life  for 
his  friends;  lay  down  his  life  in  humility; 
lay  down  his  life  in  obscurity ;  lay  down 
his  life  in  service;  lay  down  his  life  in 
the  desire  to  be  helpful  to  those  whose 
lives  may  rest  above  and  upon  his. 

Several  years  ago  the  newspapers  gave 
a  thrilling  account  of  a  passenger  train 
that  started  down  from  Duluth  when 
the  forest  fires  in  Minnesota  were  rag- 
ing most  fiercely.  It  got  as  far  down  as 
a  town  about  halfway,  and  then  the 


The  Serving  Christ          153 

smoke  became  so  intense  that  they  had 
to  light  the  headlights  of  the  engine,  al- 
though it  was  early  in  the  afternoon. 
And  by  and  by  the  smoke  was  so  heavy 
that  the  engineer  and  fireman  could  not 
see  more  than  five  yards  in  front  of  the 
engine.  Suddenly  a  great  wall  of  fire 
burst  out  in  the  darkness  in  front  of 
them,  so  that  there  was  only  time  to  re- 
verse the  engine,  and  run  back  to  a 
swamp.  The  fire  chased  along  almost 
as  fast  as  the  engine  was  going.  The 
fireman  and  the  engineer  could  not  stand 
it.  So  the  fireman  got  back  into  the 
water  tank,  and  would  only  come  out  to 
throw  water  over  the  engineer,  and 
would  creep  back  when  he  could  no 
longer  stand  the  heat,  into  the  tepid 
water  of  the  tank.  At  last  they  got 
to  the  swamp,  and  when  the  great  fire 
bad  rushed  by,  they  found,  still  living, 
but  unconscious  there  on  his  seat,  the 
engineer,  sitting  with  his  hand  on  the 
throttle.  There  was  something  there  of 
the  spirit  of  Christ,  who  was  willing 
to  lay  down  His  life  for  His  brethren. 
Whatever  the  engineer's  later  life  may 


154  "Remember  Jesus  Christ" 

have  been  there  was  the  great  spirit  of  a 
true  service  in  it  that  day  amid  the  smoke 
and  the  racing  flame. 

What  else  is  there  worth  living  for? 
What  else  ?  Society,  a  degree,  the  gratifi- 
cation of  certain  tastes,  the  development 
of  certain  gifts  that  we  believe  that  we 
possess?  What  are  all  these  compared 
with  the  life  of  service  ?  My  friends,  we 
were  sent,  not  to  be  satisfied,  but  to  serve. 
I  think  sometimes  the  words  that  Jesus 
spoke  in  another  connection,  refer  to 
spiritual  life  quite  as  truly,  "Whosoever 
would  save  his  life  shall  lose  it,  but  who- 
soever shall  lose  his  life  for  My  sake,  the 
same  shall  save  it."  What  God  wants  of 
us  is  that  we  should  follow  in  the  foot- 
steps of  His  Son,  and  serve.  Let  us  begin 
to-night.  Let  us  learn  this  last  lesson  of 
this  sweet  and  helpful  day.  Let  us  write 
over  our  lives  before  the  night  shadows 
nave  altogether  fallen,  "I  will  be  among 
men  as  one  wh<^  serves." 


PHILIPS  PROBLEM 


If  2  speak  with  the  tongues  of  men  and  of  angels  but 

have  not  love, 

I  am  become  sounding  brass  or  a  clanging  cymbal. 
And  if  I  have    the  gift  of  prophecy  and  know  all 

mysteries  and  all  knowledge  ; 

And  if  I  have  all  faith,  so  as  to  remove  mountains 
But  have  not  love,  1  am  nothing. 
And  if  I  bestow  all  my  goods  to  feed  the  poor 
And  if  I  give  my  body  to  be  burned, 
But  have  not  love,  it  projiteth  me  nothing. 

Love  suffereth  long  and  is  kind ;  love  envieth  not. 

Love  vaunteth  not  itself,  is  not  puffed  up, 

Doth  not  behave  itself  unseemly, 

Seeketh   not   its   own,    is   not  provoked,   taketh   not 

account  of  evil ; 
Rejoiceth  not  in  unrighteousness,  but  rejoiceth  with 

the  truth  ; 
Beareth  all  things,  believeth  all  things,  hopeth  all 

things,  endureth  all  things. 
Love  never  failetk; 
But  whether  there  be  prophecies  they  shall  be  done 

away  ; 

Whether  there  be  tongues  they  shall  cease ; 
Whether  there  be  knowledge,  it  shall  be  done  away. 
For  we  know  in  part,  and  we  prophesy  in  part : 
But  when  that  which  is  perfect  is  come, 
That  which  is  in  part  shall  be  done  away. 

When  I  was  a  child  I  spake  as  a  child,  I  felt  as  a 

child,  I  thought  as  a  child ; 
Now   that  I  am  become  a  man,  I  have  put  away 

childish  things. 

For  now  we  see  in  a  mirror,  darkly,  but  then  face  to 

face  : 
Now  I  know  in  part :  but  then  shall  I  know  even  as 

also  I  am  known. 

But  now  abideth,  faith,  hope,  love,  these  three ; 
And  the  greatest  of  these  is  love. 

—Paul. 


VI 

PHILIP'S  PROBLEM 

IN  the  fourteenth  chapter  of  the  Gospel 
of  John  and  at  the  ninth  verse  there  is 
recorded  for  us  one  of  the  many  personal 
questions  which  Jesus  addressed  to  indi- 
viduals. It  was  His  last  night  with  His 
disciples  before  His  crucifixion.  He  had 
given  them  the  magnificent  object  lesson 
in  service  of  which  none  of  them  failed  to 
catch  some  of  the  significance,  when  He 
girded  Himself  with  a  towel  and  taking 
a  basin  of  water  stooped  down  and  Him- 
self washed  the  dusty  feet  of  His  dis- 
ciples. Judas  had  already  been  sent  out 
into  the  night,  most  of  the  disciples 
knowing  that  something  was  wrong, 
and  Christ  had  just  said  in  the  presence 
of  all  to  Simon  Peter  that  before  the  cock 
crowed  twice  he  should  deny  Him  thrice. 
All  this  seems  to  have  created  a  great 
deal  of  disturbance  among  the  disciples. 
One  of  their  number  had  gone  out  into 

157 


158  "Remember  Jesus  Christ" 

the  darkness,  many  of  them  suspecting 
evil  from  it,  and  they  had  just  heard  of 
another,  the  most  prominent  of  their 
number,  who  was  to  deny  Jesus  within 
a  few  hours.  One  can  readily  under- 
stand that  these  things,  added  to  the 
pain  of  the  parting  which  they  all  in- 
definitely felt  was  near  at  hand,  must 
have  made  this  night  to  all  of  them  a 
very  anxious  time,  full  of  self-distrust 
and  general  uneasiness. 

This  probably  explains  the  words  with 
which  Christ  begins  the  fourteenth  chap- 
ter of  John's  Gospel,  ' '  Let  not  your  hearts 
be  troubled."  They  were  troubled  be- 
cause they  knew  He  was  going  away. 
Their  faith  in  themselves  and  in  their 
own  fidelity  to  Christ  had  been  very 
severely  shaken.  "Let  not  your  hearts 
be  troubled,"  He  said,  knowing  just 
what  it  was  that  they  needed.  "  Let  not 
your  hearts  be  troubled;  ye  believe  in 
God.  Ye  may  have  lost  faith  in  one  an- 
other, but  ye  believe  in  God,  believe  also 
in  Me.  In  My  Father's  house  are  many 
mansions.  If  it  were  not  so  I  would 
have  told  you.  I  go  to  prepare  a  place 


Jr/hi  lip's  Froblem  159 

for  you,  and  if  I  go,  I  will  come  again 
and  receive  you  unto  Myself,  that  where 
I  am  there  ye  may  be  also.  Whither  I 
go  ye  know,  and  the  way  ye  know." 
He  had  something  else  in  mind  evidently 
that  He  was  just  about  to  say.  He  clearly 
had  a  train  of  thought  along  which  He 
had  intended  to  lead  His  apostles;  but, 
at  this  point,  Thomas  interrupted  Him. 
It  seems  to  us  that  he  did  it  rather 
rudely,  but  no  doubt  it  was  out  of  the 
brusque  honesty  of  his  heart.  "No, 
Lord,"  he  said,  "  we  don't  know  whither 
Thou  art  going  and  how  can  we  know 
the  way?"  Thomas  was  a  man  willing 
to  die  for  the  faith  he  had.  When  Christ 
wanted  to  go  down  to  Bethany  where 
Lazarus  lay  dead,  and  His  disciples  en- 
deavored to  dissuade  Him,  but  found  it 
impossible  to  do  so,  Thomas  was  the 
first  to  say,  "Let  us  go  along  that  we 
may  die  with  Him."  I  say  he  was  ready 
to  die  for  the  faith  that  he  had,  but  he 
was  not  willing  to  profess  a  faith  that  he 
had  not;  and  the  moment  he  saw  that 
Christ  was  assuming  that  all  the  disciples 
were  following  Him  and  assenting,  he 


160  "Remember  Jesus  Christ" 

contradicted  Jesus,  wanting  Him  to  see 
that  he  could  not  follow  Him  beyond 
this  point.  It  was  a  natural  difficulty ;  it 
was  just  like  Thomas  to  speak  it  out. 
Many  of  us,  failing  to  see  the  end,  refuse 
to  be  satisfied  with  the  vision  of  the 
way.  Like  Thomas  we  are  not  able  to 
sing,— 

"  So  I  go  on  not  knowing, 

I  would  not  if  I  might; 
I  would  rather  walk  with  God  in  the  dark, 

Than  walk  alone  in  the  light. 
I  would  rather  walk  with  Him  by  faith, 

Than  walk  alone  by  sight." 

As  always,  Christ  dealt  patiently  and  lov- 
ingly with  Thomas.  He  had  answered 
Thomas's  difficulty  often  before,  but  He 
turns  to  him  to  answer  it  once  again  say- 
ing, "I  am  the  way,  the  truth,  and  the 
life:  no  man  cometh  unto  the  Father  but 
by  Me.  If  ye  had  known  Me,  ye  would 
have  known  My  Father  also :  from  hence- 
forth ye  know  Him  and  have  seen  Him." 
Thomas  was  silent,  thinking  over  this 
reply. 

And  then  when  Jesus  was  about  to  go 
on,  apparently  with  the  line  of  thought 


Philip's  Problem  161 

which  Thomas's  question  had  suggested, 
Philip  breaks  in  with  an  interruption  even 
more  vexatious  than  that  of  Thomas. 
He  said,  "Lord,  show  us  the  Father  and 
it  sufficeth  us."  Had  not  Christ  just  said, 
"  Having  known  Me,  ye  have  known  and 
seen  the  Father"?  Where  had  Philip's 
thoughts  been  ?  Christ  had  just  answered 
his  question  in  the  words  He  had  spoken 
to  Thomas,  but  Philip  breaks  in,  appar- 
ently not  having  heard  what  Christ  had 
said,  or  only  having  caught  the  word 
Father  at  the  end,  and  says,  "  Lord,  show 
us  the  Father  and  it  sufficeth  us."  If 
Thomas's  interjection  was  characteristic 
of  him,  Philip's  was  not  less  character- 
istic of  him.  Every  time  we  are  shown 
Philip,  by  himself,  in  the  Gospels  it  is  in 
circumstances  that  do  not  reflect  credit 
upon  his  intelligence,  although  they 
show  his  sincerity  and  eager  earnestness. 
The  first  time  he  comes  into  view  is  in 
his  interview  with  Nathanael,  whom  he 
wants  to  bring  to  Jesus.  Nathanael's 
first  question  was,  "Can  any  good  thing 
come  out  of  Nazareth?"  Philip  might 
have  told  him  that  Jonah  and  a  great 


162  "Remember  Jesus  Christ" 

many  other  noble  servants  of  God  had 
come  out  of  Nazareth,  but  poor  Philip 
was  unprepared  to  answer  him  so  and 
could  only  stammer  out,  "I  can't  say, 
Nathanael, — come  and  see."  A  little  later 
Christ  turned  to  the  disciples,  when  He 
was  about  to  feed  the  five  thousand,  say- 
ing, "Where  shall  we  get  bread  to  feed 
so  many  people  ?  "  John  saw  the  point 
of  Christ's  question,  that  He  wished  to 
test  the  disciples,  but  Philip  did  not  see  it 
and  said,  "Lord,  two  hundred  penny- 
worth would  not  buy  enough  to  feed  all 
these."  When  some  Greeks  came  up  to 
the  feast,  wanting  to  see  Christ,  and  per- 
haps because  they  had  before  had  some 
association  with  Philip  or  his  people,  (he 
had  a  Greek  name  and  he  came  from  a 
Greek  settlement  in  Galilee)  they  found 
him  first  and  said,  "We  should  like  to 
see  Jesus  " ;  Philip  did  not  know  what  to 
do,  so  he  found  his  brother  Andrew  and 
said,  "Andrew,  there  are  some  Greeks 
here  wanting  to  see  Christ;  what  is  the 
proper  course  to  pursue  ?  "  It  was  indeed 
a  delicate  situation.  And  Andrew  took 
the  whole  matter  out  of  Philip's  hands, 


Philip's  Problem  163 

not  willing  to  trust  his  direct,  but  infelic- 
itous ways. 

And  here  in  John's  fourteenth  chapter 
we  meet  him  once  more.  Christ  had  told 
him  all  he  wanted  to  know,  and  Philip 
asked  for  it  over  again.  And  Christ  in 
His  loving, way  tries  to  help  him.  It 
would  have  been  a  natural  difficulty  of 
course,  if  Christ  had  not  already  cleared 
it  up.  Yet  what  an  unintended  insult  to 
Christ  was  in  Philip's  words!  There  He 
had  been  with  these  apostles  for  three 
long  years  attempting  to  satisfy  them 
with  Himself,  and  now  one  of  His  pupils 
says,  "  It  does  not  suffice  us  to  have  been 
three  years  with  you;  let  us  see  the 
Father,  then  we  shall  be  satisfied."  How 
we  blame  Philip!  We  think  if  we  could 
only  have  been  there  in  that  little  upper 
room  with  Christ  when  He  spoke  those 
last  loving  words  to  His  disciples,  we 
should  have  said.  "  Lord,  we  are  satisfied 
with  Thee,  don't  go  away  from  us.  Just 
stay  by  our  side  here  and  we  shall  be 
satisfied  forever."  And  yet,  was  Philip's 
mistake  such  an  uncommon  one  ?  Christ 
had  said  practically,  "He  that  hath  seen 


164  "Remember  Jesus  Christ" 

Me,  hath  seen  the  Father";  yet  Philip 
said,  "Lord,  show  us  the  Father  and  it 
sufficeth  us."  Is  not  this  just  the  mistake 
that  the  great  majority  of  Christians  are 
making?  Here  stands  everything  al- 
ready in  front  of  us,  and  we  say,  "  Lord, 
show  it  to  us."  Philip  had  it  all  in  front 
of  him,  enfolded  in  Christ;  he  asked  for 
what  was  already  there  for  him  to  see 
and  take. 

Have  you  ever  noticed  the  gentle 
courtesy,  divine  in  its  perfectness,  with 
which  Christ  answered  Philip?  "Have 
I  been  so  long  with  you  " —  He  did  not 
put  the  reproach  on  Philip, — not  that, 
Christ  was  too  perfect  a  gentleman  to  re- 
flect on  Philip.  He  took  all  the  blame  of 
Philip's  stupidity  upon  Himself:  "Have 
I  been  so  long  time  with  you,  Philip,  and 
yet  have  I  failed  to  get  this  idea  clearly 
into  your  heart  ?  "  He  had  come  for  just 
that  purpose,  to  show  men  the  Father, 
and  now  at  the  end  of  three  years'  care- 
ful instruction,  one  of  the  disciples  told 
Him  that  He  had  failed  in  just  what  He 
came  to  do;  yet ,  instead  of  blaming  His 
disciple  for  his  ignorance  in  not  having 


Philip's  Problem  165 

learned  what  He  had  been  so  clearly 
teaching,  He  took  all  the  reproach  upon 
Himself.  It  must  have  been  with  infinite 
sadness  that  He  said  these  words,  "  Have 
I  been  so  long  time  with  you,  and  yet 
hast  thou  not  known  Me?" 

Philip  had  said,  "Show  us  the  Father," 
but  Jesus  said  not  a  word  about  the 
Father, — "  Have  I  been  so  long  time 
with  you,  and  yet  hast  thou  not  known, 
— not  the  Father,  but  Me" — and  then  He 
adds  his  name,  "Philip."  There  are,  I 
think,  only  ten  cases  in  the  Gospels  where 
Jesus  Christ  speaks  to  a  person  that  way 
by  name.  Five  of  them  are  in  connec- 
tion with  Simon.  "Blessed  art  thou, 
Simon  Barjona:  for  flesh  and  blood  hath 
not  revealed  it  unto  thee,  but  My  Father 
which  is  in  heaven."  "Simon,  Simon, 
behold  Satan  hath  desired  to  have  you, 
that  he  may  sift  you  as  wheat :  but  I  have 
prayed  for  thee  that  thy  faith  fail  not: 
and  when  thou  art  converted,  strengthen 
thy  brethren."  "What  thinkest  thou, 
Simon  ?  Of  whom  do  the  kings  of  the 
earth  take  custom  or  tribute  ?  Of  their 
own  children  or  strangers?"  "What, 


i66  "Remember  Jesus  Christ" 

Simon,  couldst  thou  not  watch  with  Me 
one  hour?"  "Simon,  son  of  Jonas, 
lovest  thou  Me?"  Once  He  called 
Martha  by  name,  "Martha,  Martha,  thou 
art  careful  and  troubled  about  many 
things:  but  one  thing  is  needful:  and 
Mary  hath  chosen  that  good  part  which 
shall  not  be  taken  away  from  her."  And 
once  He  called  Mary  Magdalene  by  name 
as  she  stood  by  the  door  of  the  sepulchre 
and  mistook  Him  for  the  gardener.  He 
waited  until  she  was  done  with  her  ques- 
tion, and  then  said  quietly,  "  Mary,"  and 
she  wheeled  about  with  the  words, 
"My  Master."  Before  the  garden  where 
He  had  been  praying,  He  said  to  the 
traitor,  "Judas,  betray est  thou  the  Son 
of  Man  with  a  kiss  ? "  And  standing 
before  the  grave  at  Bethany  He  cried, 
"Lazarus,  come  forth."  Whenever  He 
wanted  to  draw  a  heart  specially  close 
to  Himself,  He  called  it  by  name,  but  it 
was  very  seldom.  "Hast  thou  been  so 
long  time  with  Me,  and  yet  hast  thou  not 
known  Me,  Philip?" 

"Philip,"  He  said,  "any  man  that  has 
seen  Me  has  seen  the  Father.     Believest 


Philip's  Problem  167 

thou  not  that  I  am  in  the  Father  and  the 
Father  in  Me  ?  The  words  that  I  say  unto 
you  1  speak  not  from  Myself:  but  the 
Father  abiding  in  Me  doeth  His  works. 
Believe  Me  that  I  am  in  the  Father,  and 
the  Father  in  Me."  Now  He  had  said 
this  same  thing  many  times  to  His  dis- 
ciples. Time  after  time  He  had  gone  over 
just  this  lesson  which  perhaps  He  knew  it 
would  be  hardest  for  them  to  learn.  Yet 
now  Philip  shows  he  has  not  learned  it. 
What  does  Jesus  do  ?  Grow  impatient  ? 
It  is  said  that  once  a  visitor  was  staying 
with  Mrs.  Wesley  when  Charles  was  a 
little  boy,  and  Charles  came  in  and  asked 
his  mother  a  question,  which  his  mother 
patiently  answered.  In  five  minutes  he 
came  back  and  asked  the  same  question 
and  his  mother  patiently  answered  it. 
The  third,  fourth,  fifth,  sixth,  and  seventh 
times  Charles  came  back  and  asked  the 
same  question  and  his  mother  answered 
it  as  patiently  as  she  had  done  the  first 
time.  Then  the  visitor  said  to  her, 
"  Why  did  you  waste  time  in  answering 
that  troublesome  boy's  question  seven 
times?"  "Well,"  Mrs.  Wesley  said, 


l68  "Remember  Jesus  Christ" 

"because  six  times  were  not  enough." 
"  She  had  learned  patience  in  the  school 
of  Christ,"  who,  when  He  found  that 
His  disciples  could  not  catch  the  simplest 
truth  in  ten  times  repetition  of  it,  was 
willing  to  repeat  it  again  as  He  did  here 
for  Philip. 

"Believest  thou  not  that  I  am  in  the 
Father?  Why,  I  should  have  thought 
thou  wouldst  have  been  one  of  the  very 
first  to  believe  this.  Thou  wast  one  of 
the  first  to  follow  Me,  to  call  Me  Messiah. 
Thou  wast  one  of  the  first  to  appeal  to 
sight  as  an  evidence  of  My  claims.  And 
to  think  that  thou  hast  not  known  that 
the  man  that  has  seen  Me  has  seen  the 
Father!  Believest  thou  not  that  I  am  in 
the  Father?"  It  simmered  down  to  a 
matter  of  faith.  The  question  was,  did 
Philip  believe  ?  By  belief  here,  Jesus  did 
not  mean  intellectual  assent  to  a  certain 
set  of  propositions  formulated  for  the  in- 
tellect to  pass  judgment  upon.  He  meant 
a  personal,  moral  surrender  to  Christ,  the 
living  appropriation  of  that  which  Christ 
has  to  give.  If  Philip  believed  in  this 
sense,  his  difficulty  would  disappear. 


Philip's  Problem  169 

And  then  Christ  came  down  in  dealing 
with  Philip  to  the  very  grossest  evidence 
that  he  offered  to  man,  and  said,  "Well 
then,  Philip,  if  you  have  not  enough 
of  the  Spirit  of  God  in  you  to  enable  your 
spirit  to  answer  back  to  My  spirit  when 
I  show  you  the  Father,  if  your  soul's 
spiritual  response  to  Me  does  not  convince 
and  suffice,  why  don't  you  believe  Me 
for  the  works  that  I  have  done?"  He 
descends  to  the  lowest  of  all  the  evidence 
upon  which  His  claims  to  be  the  true 
representative  of  the  Father  rested,  and 
asked  Philip  whether  if  he  couldn't  come 
up  to  the  high  level  where  in  spiritual 
fellowship  heart  of  man  answers  to  heart 
of  Christ,  he  was  not  willing  to  accept 
the  evidence  of  His  works. 

Christ's  mighty  claim  is  in  this  reply 
to  Philip.  He  makes  here  one  of  His 
divine  and  unquestionable  assertions.  "I 
am  in  the  Father  and  the  Father  is  in  Me. 
He  that  hath  seen  Me  hath  seen  the 
Father."  Let  us  not  pare  down  these 
words.  Deal  squarely  with  them.  Can 
we  hold  to  the  faith  not  of  Christ's  di- 
vinity but  of  His  sanity  and  honesty, 


170  "Remember  Jesus  Christ" 

without  going  on  to  a  rich  faith  in  His 
deity  and  in  the  revelation  in  Him  of  the 
living  God,  Father  of  His  spirit  and  of 
ours  ? 

"Have  I  been  so  long  time  with  you, 
and  yet  hast  thou  not  known  Me?"  I 
do  not  know  any  better  question  for  us 
to  ask  of  our  own  hearts  in  behalf  of 
Christ.  There  are  men  who  grew  up  in 
Christian  homes,  with  this  Bible  open 
from  their  very  earliest  memories  on 
their  mothers'  knees,  where  they  learned 
their  first  lessons  in  holy  living,  to  whom 
Christ  may  fittingly  speak  this  question, 
"Hast  thou  been  so  long  time  with  Me, 
have  I  been  so  long  time  with  thee,  and 
yet  has  thou  not  known  Me  ?  " 

Have  we  known  Him,  fellow-students, 
as  the  object  of  our  speech,  as  the  object 
of  our  thought,  and  as  the  object  of  our 
life?  Ask  these  questions  in  order  of 
your  own  heart.  Have  you  known  Jesus 
Christ  as  the  object  of  your  speech? 
Have  you  ever  read  through  the  Acts  and 
the  Epistles  of  Paul  to  find  out  what  it 
was  that  the  early  Christians  talked  about  ? 
Luke  tells  us  in  his  clear  way,  describing 


Philip's  Problem  171 

the  early  apostolic  life  in  Jerusalem,  that 
every  day  they  ceased  not  in  the  temple 
and  at  home  to  talk  Christ.  He  tells  us 
that  when  Philip  went  to  Samaria  and 
spread  the  revival  spirit  there,  he  preached 
Jesus  to  the  people;  then  on  his  way  back, 
when  the  Spirit  of  God  put  him  down 
by  the  Ethiopian  eunuch,  he  proclaimed 
to  him  Christ.  Turn  to  Paul's  writings 
and  see  what  he  preached  as  he  went 
from  city  to  city.  He  tells  us  clearly  that 
the  chief  thing  he  did  was  to  talk  Christ 
to  men.  When  he  came  to  Thessalonica, 
he  said,  "This  Jesus  whom  I  preach  to 
you  is  Christ."  When  he  got  into  trou- 
ble at  Athens  it  was  because  he  preached 
Jesus.  When  he  reminded  people  in  his 
Epistles  of  what  it  was  they  had  heard 
from  him  when  he  was  with  them,  what 
did  he  say  it  was  ?  Doctrines  ?  Yes,  in 
a  sense.  Truths  ?  Yes,  in  a  sense.  But 
he  preached  a  Person.  He  says,  "  When 
I  was  in  the  midst  of  you,  I  preached 
Christ  to  you.  Not  myself,  but  Christ." 
Christ  was  the  conversation  of  the  early 
Christians. 
Have  we  spoken  one  word  about  Jesus 


172  "Remember  Jesus  Christ" 

Christ  this  morning?  Are  there  not 
scores  of  men  who  have  not  said  to  an- 
other man  one  word  about  Christ  all  this 
past  year  ?  Are  there  not  many  of  us 
who  have  never  thought  of  making  Jesus 
the  one  object  of  our  speech  ?  I  know 
that  it  is  hard.  There  are  many  men 
born  with  a  constitutional  disinclination 
to  speak  the  name  of  either  God  or 
Christ.  In  Patterson  Du  Bois's  little  book 
on  "  Beckonings  of  Little  Hands,"  he  tells 
the  story  of  one  of  his  children  who  has 
since  died,  whom  he  could  with  greatest 
difficulty  only  get  to  mention  the  name 
of  God  or  of  Christ.  The  child  was  born 
with  this  holy  hesitancy.  It  was  the  holy 
place  in  the  child's  life,  and  he  had  not 
come  to  the  time  when  he  was  able 
to  open  the  doors  of  that  place  and  let 
any  profane  eyes  gaze  in ;  but  when  the 
child  had  died,  a  little  notebook  was 
found  which  had  been  given  him  by  his 
nurse,  and  there  printed  in  great  sprawl- 
ing baby  letters,  right  across  the  page, 
were  these  words,  "God  is  love;  He 
loves  lambs."  If  the  child  had  lived  he 
would  have  fought  his  way  to  the  place 


Philip's  Problem  173 

where  he  could  have  talked  of  the  God 
who  loves  lambs.  But  he  was  born  with 
a  constitutional  hesitancy  about  doing  it. 

Why  did  God  make  it  so  hard  when  it 
ought  to  be  the  very  life  of  men  to  speak 
so  about  Christ  ?  Perhaps  He  did  it  be- 
cause He  did  not  want  such  speaking  to 
be  cheap,  because  He  wanted  each  man 
to  gain  a  victory  over  himself  each  time 
he  spoke  the  name  of  the  great  Victor. 
So  He  gives  us  the  great  joy  of  being 
victorious  on  each  occasion  over  our- 
selves in  the  act  of  speaking  and  talking 
and  teaching  Christ. 

Has  a  Christian  man  concern  with  any 
other  conversation  than  Christ?  This 
whole  land  would  be  swept  with  the 
Christian  life  as  no  section  of  the  world 
has  ever  been  swept  with  it  if  men  made 
it  their  business  to  talk  Christ;  if,  when 
they  walked  with  one  another  they  talked 
Him,  if,  when  they  sat  down  for  a  con- 
versation they  talked  Him,  if  they  came 
to  know  Christ  as  the  object  of  their 
speech.  Mr.  Ruskin,  I  think,  is  setting 
forth  the  truth  in  his  "Notes  on  the  Con- 
struction of  Sheepfolds:" 


174  "Remember  Jesus  Christ" 

"Although,  however,  the  Protestant 
laity  do  not  often  admit  the  absolving 
power  of  their  clergy,  they  are  but  too 
apt  to  yield,  in  some  sort,  to  the  impres- 
sion of  their  greater  sanctification :  and 
from  this  instantly  results  the  unhappy 
consequence  that  the  sacred  character  of 
the  layman  himself  is  forgotten,  and  his 
own  ministerial  duty  is  neglected.  Men 
not  in  office  in  the  Church  suppose  them- 
selves, on  that  ground,  in  a  sort  unholy : 
and  that,  therefore,  they  may  sin  with 
more  excuse,  and  be  idle  or  impious  with 
less  danger  than  the  clergy:  especially 
they  consider  themselves  relieved  from 
all  ministerial  function,  and  as  permitted 
to  devote  their  whole  time  and  energy  to 
the  business  of  this  world.  No  mistake 
can  possibly  be  greater.  Every  member 
of  the  Church  is  equally  bound  to  the 
service  of  the  Head  of  the  Church;  and 
that  service  is  preeminently  the  saving  of 
souls.  There  is  not  a  moment  of  a  man's 
active  life  in  which  he  may  not  be  indi- 
rectly preaching;  and  throughout  a  great 
part  of  his  life  he  ought  to  be  directly 
preaching,  and  teaching  both  strangers 


Philip's  Problem  175 

and  friends;  his  children,  his  servants, 
and  all  who  in  any  way  are  put  under 
him,  being  given  to  him  as  special  ob- 
jects of  his  ministration." 

There  are  few  Americans  for  whom 
some  of  us  grew  up  to  entertain  a  higher 
reverence  than  for  Robert  E.  Lee,  the 
leader  of  the  Confederate  armies.  Dr. 
Broadus  used  to  tell  a  story  of  him  that 
had  been  told  to  him  by  a  clergyman 
who  was  accustomed  to  go  to  White 
Sulphur  Springs,  after  the  war,  to  preach. 
He  met  there  the  white-haired  old  man 
whom  every  Southerner,  every  man  who 
came  in  contact  with  him,  loved.  One 
Sabbath,  he  said,  as  they  held  service  in 
the  ball-room,  as  was  their  custom,  he 
noticed  General  Lee  coming  in  late. 
Knowing  that  he  was  a  punctilious  man 
and  very  particular  about  the  little  cour- 
tesies of  life,  he  inquired  the  reason  for 
this.  After  the  meeting  was  over  he 
asked  some  one  why  General  Lee  had 
not  come  in  in  time.  He  told  him  that 
he  had  waited  as  was  his  custom  until 
he  thought  all  the  people  who  intended 
to  come  to  the  meeting  had  come  into 


176  "Remember  Jesus  Christ" 

the  room,  then  the  old  white-haired  man, 
whom  every  Southerner  loved,  walked 
out  under  the  trees,  and  over  the  veran- 
das, and  wherever  he  could  find  men  he 
would  lay  his  hands  on  their  shoulders 
and  say,  "We  are  going  to  have  a  little 
service  in  here.  Won't  you  come  in?" 
Few  could  resist  that  gentle,  loving 
voice.  He  preached  Christ.  He  did  it 
through  the  war,  and  after  the  war; 
Christ  was  the  object  of  speech  to  him. 

Many  who  are  studying  for  the  ministry, 
some  who  have  been  in  the  ministry  for 
some  time,  have  not  as  yet  learned  what 
it  is  to  make  Jesus  Christ  the  one  object 
of  their  speech.  You  remember  in  "  His 
Mother's  Sermon,"  the  young  Scotch 
student  who  came  out  from  his  divinity 
school  intending  to  preach  such  sermons 
as  many  intend  to  preach.  He  finally 
wrote  his  first  one  on  "Semitic  Envi- 
ronment," the  childishness  of  adhering 
to  the  abandoned  superstitions  regard- 
ing the  composition  of  the  Old  Testa- 
ment books,  etc.,  and  got  it  all  ready  to 
lay  before  his  people  as  the  bread  of  life. 
You  recall  how  the  Spirit  of  God  recalled 


Philip's  Problem  177 

to  him  the  promise  that  he  had  made  to 
his  mother  on  her  deathbed  when  she 
said,  "If  God  calls  ye  to  the  ministry, 
ye  '  ill  no  refuse,  an'  the  first  day  ye 
preach  in  yir  ain  kirk,  speak  a  gude  word 
for  Jesus  Christ." 

Do  we  make  it  the  business  of  our 
lives  to  speak  such  words,  or  do  we  do 
it  now  and  then  only,  or  not  even  now  and 
then  ?  So  many  of  us  salve  our  con- 
sciences with  a  little  piece  of  personal 
work  in  one  month,  and  another  little 
piece  in  another.  Have  we  made  it  the 
great  object  of  our  lives  to  talk  Jesus  ? 
"  Have  I  been  so  long  time  with  you  and 
yet  hast  thou  not  known  Me  as  the  one 
object  of  your  speech  ?  " 

Have  we  accepted  Him,  as  the  object  of 
our  thought?  You  know  what  that 
means,  you  men  who  would  be  ashamed 
to  let  your  mothers  or  your  own  sisters 
look  into  your  minds.  I  learn  more  pain- 
fully each  year  how  much  stain  and 
corruption  there  is  on  the  men  who  pass 
for  Christian  men  in  our  American  col- 
leges. 1  remember  one  man  who  came 
to  me  once  and  said,  as  we  walked  late 


178  "Remember  Jesus  Christ" 

at  night  under  the  pure  stars,  "I  would 
have  both  my  hands  cut  off  or  my  eye 
plucked  out  if  I  might  be  given  the  pure 
soul  I  had  when  I  lay  as  a  little  child  in 
my  mother's  arms."  Perhaps  this  man 
voiced  the  longings  of  the  hearts  of 
hundreds  of  college  men.  Oh  the  cor- 
ruption of  evil  thinking;  the  worthless- 
ness  of  it;  the  corroding  degradation  of 
it!  while  all  the  time  there  stands  One 
knocking  at  the  door  of  each  life  and  say- 
ing, "  Have  I  been  so  long  time  with  you 
and  yet  hast  thou  not  learned  to  know 
Me  as  the  one  object  of  all  your  think- 
ing?" We  never  can  drive  out  the  un- 
cleanness  of  evil  thoughts  except  by 
pouring  in  the  clean  wholesomeness  of 
the  thoughts  of  Christ.  We  can  cleanse 
these  minds  of  ours  from  what  we  want 
them  freed  from  only  by  flooding  them 
with  the  light  that  shines  from  the  face 
of  Jesus  Christ.  Have  you  tried  for  one 
hour  to  think  no  thought  except  Christ  ? 
Have  you  made  Christ  for  any  length  of 
time  the  one  object  of  your  thought? 
Try  it,  you  who  want  to  break  loose 
from  the  shackles  that  you  know  are 


Philip's  Problem  179 

keeping  you  away  from  the  great  bless- 
ing of  God,  and  from  the  pure  sweetness 
of  His  free  and  holy  life.  What  else  is 
there  to  think  about  that  is  worth  any- 
thing compared  with  Him  ?  All  treasures 
of  wisdom  and  knowledge  are  hidden  in 
Him.  It  must  grieve  Him  to  see  us  filling 
our  minds  with  passing  things,  worthless 
things,  dying  after  the  fashion  of  the 
world,  while  Christ  is  crowded  away 
into  some  bare  and  paltry  place  in  our 
lives.  Let  us  learn  to  make  Jesus  and 
Jesus  only  the  object  of  all  our  thinking! 
If  we  did,  how  we  would  lose  taste  for 
much  that  pleases  us  now!  How  music 
that  perhaps  takes  a  large  place  in  our 
hearts  now  would  be  put  into  a  subordi- 
nate place!  How  the  taste  for  certain 
classes  of  books  or  of  studies  or  certain 
lines  of  thought  would  vanish  into  an  in- 
significant place  the  moment  we  gave  to 
Jesus  Christ  the  place  to  which  He  is  en- 
titled in  our  thinking!  "Have  I  been 
with  you,"  says  He,  "  for  so  many  years, 
and  yet  hast  thou  not  come  to  know  Me 
as  the  one  object  of  your  thought  ?  " 
There  is  nothing  narrowing  or  belittling 


180  "Remember  Jesus  Christ" 

in  this  claim  of  Christ  for  sovereignty 
over  our  thoughts.  All  true  thoughts  are 
thoughts  of  Him.  All  beauty  and  holi- 
ness is  in  Him.  He  is  glory  and  power 
and  wisdom.  And  He  deserves  to  be  the 
sole  object  of  our  vision.  He  died  for  us. 
When  Cyrus  took  captive  the  king  of 
Armenia  and  Tigranes  his  son  and  their 
families  he  gave  them  their  liberty  on 
condition  that  they  would  surrender  their 
kingdoms  and  go  quietly  hojiie.  On  their 
journey  they  were  all  discussing  Cyrus, 
his  power  and  splendor  and  magnanim- 
ity, and  at  last  Tigranes  turned  to  his  wife 
who  had  been  silent  and  said  to  her, 
"What  didst  thou  think  of  Cyrus  ?  "  "I 
never  saw  him,"  she  replied.  "Never 
saw  him !  "  exclaimed  Tigranes,  "  Where 
were  thine  eyes?"  "I  fixed  them,"  said 
she,  "upon  him  whom  I  heard  in  my 
presence  offer  to  lay  down  his  life  for 
me."  She  had  eyes  for  none  but  that 
one. 

Have  we  come  to  know  Him,  lastly,  as 
the  object  of  our  life  ?  I  suppose  that 
Philip  did  not  talk  about  much  else  than 
Jesus;  I  suppose  he  did  not  think  about 


Philip's  Problem  18 1 

mucn  else  than  Jesus,  and  yet  it  was 
to  Philip  that  the  question  was  ad- 
dressed, "  Have  I  been  so  long  time 
with  you,  and  yet  hast  thou  not  known 
Me?"  He  had  been  with  Him  for 
those  three  years,  he  had  heard  all  that 
Christ  had  taught,  he  probably  thought 
and  talked  nothing  but  Jesus,  and  yet 
Christ  asked  him  whether  he  had  not  al- 
together missed  knowing  Him.  What 
did  He  mean  ?  It  would  seem  to  be  pos- 
sible to  associate  intimately  with  Christ 
for  three  long  years  and  to  pass  for  His 
disciple  and  yet  not  really  to  know  Him. 
Of  course  what  Jesus  meant  first  of  all 
was  that  Philip  had  not  come  to  know 
Him  as  the  revelation  of  the  Father;  that, 
missing  the  knowledge  of  Him  in  that 
particular,  he  had  missed  it  in  the  first 
and  most  important  particular,  and  no 
matter  how  much  he  talked  about  Him 
or  thought  of  Him,  Jesus  might  appropri- 
ately say  to  him,  "Philip,  you  don't 
know  Me;  I  have  been  with  you  three 
long  years,  and  yet  you  have  failed  to 
learn  the  very  most  essential  thing  about 
Me."  Is  not  this  true  of  some  of  us 


182  "Remember  Jesus  Christ" 

also  ?  We  have  missed  knowing  Christ 
as  the  revelation  of  the  Father,  giving  to 
each  of  us  perfect  power  and  perfect  rest 
and  satisfying  us  wholly.  There  are 
three  grades  of  Christian  life;  there  is, 
first  of  all,  the  dissatisfied  life,  the  life 
that  knows  there  is  something  it  does  not 
have,  and  that  wants  it,  and  that  is  per- 
petually discontented,  and  rightly  so,  with 
itself.  There  is  secondly  the  life  that  is 
half  and  half,  that  now  and  then  rises  up 
to  the  Mount  of  Transfiguration  and  then 
paces  for  long  seasons  over  weary  wastes 
of  whitened  ashes.  There  is  a  third  life 
of  satisfaction  and  content  and  peace, 
and  power,  and  rest,  the  life  that  has 
made  Jesus  Christ  its  one  object,  the  life 
that  every  man  lives  who  is  able  to  say 
in  the  fine  phrase  of  Ignatius,  O  Christ, 
Thou  art  "my  inseparable  life."  The 
soul  that  has  made  Christ  its  one  object 
has  entered  into  rest  and  has  entered  into 
power;  it  has  entered  into  a  life  of  activ- 
ity which  no  foe  can  withstand,  and  of 
contentment  which  no  storm  can  ruffle; 
for  over  all  the  seas  where  it  voyages 
speaks  that  voice  which  quieted  the  tur- 


Philip's  Problem  183 

bulent  waves  of  Gennesaret,  "Peace, 
be  still."  Nothing  can  overcome  or  dis- 
turb the  soul  that  is  hid  with  Christ  in 
God  and  has  made  Christ  the  one  object 
of  its  life,  and  found  the  Father  in  Him. 

Do  we  know  Christ  ?  I  believe  in  God 
the  Father  Almighty,  Maker  of  heaven 
and  earth,  but  what  do  I  know  about 
Him?  Christ  declares,  "He  that  hath 
seen  Me  hath  seen  the  Father.  No  man 
cometh  unto  the  Father  but  by  Me."  I 
believe  in  the  Holy  Ghost,  but  what  did 
He  come  here  for?  Christ  declares 
"When  He  is  come,  He  shall  testify  of 
Me."  Jesus  Christ  is  life,  Christ  is  the 
centre  of  life,  Christ  is  the  object  of  life, 
and,  if  Christ  is  not  our  life,  we  have 
missed  the  great  thing  that  Christ  has  for 
us,  and  the  great  things  that  Christ  is 
waiting  to  be  to  us. 

1  wish  I  might  make  His  loveliness 
stand  out  so  clearly  and  distinctly  that 
every  man  would  long  to  be  linked  to 
Christ  in  such  a  way  that  nothing  could 
sever  him  from  -Him,  that  he  would 
simply  talk  Jesus  perpetually,  think  of 
Jesus  incessantly,  and  live  Jesus  forever 


184  "Remember  Jesus  Christ" 

and  forever.     For  this  Jesus  longs   and 
waits.     And  this  is  life  abundant. 

His  word  in  the  Apocalypse  which  we 
quote  constantly  with  reference  to  non- 
Christian  men,  was  not  spoken  to  non- 
Christian  men, — "Behold,  I  stand  at  the 
door  and  knock."  It  is  a  picture  which 
Christ  draws  of  the  relationship  that 
exists  between  too  many  Christian  souls 
and  Him, — Himself  without,  the  door 
fastened.  "  Behold,  I  stand  at  the  door 
and  knock:  if  any  man  hear  My  voice 
and  open  the  door,  I  will  come  in  to  him, 
and  will  sup  with  him,  and  he  with  Me." 
He  knocks  to-day  at  the  heart  of  many  a 
man.  Will  you  let  Him  in  ? 

"  Oh  Jesus,  Thou  art  standing, 

Outside  the  fast  closed  door— 
In  lowly  patience  waiting 

To  cross  the  threshold  o'er. 
We  bear  the  name  of  Christians, 

His  name  and  sign  we  bear; 
Oh  shame,  thrice  shame  upon  us, 

To  keep  Him  standing  there ! 

"  Oh  Jesus,  Thou  art  knocking, 

And  lo,  Thy  hand  is  scarred, 
And  thorns  Thy  brow  encircle, 
And  tears  Thy  face  have  marred. 


Philip's  Problem  185 

Oh  love,  that  passeth  knowledge, 

So  patiently  to  wait ! 
Oh  sin,  that  hath  no  equal, 

So  fast  to  bar  the  gate  ! 

"  Oh  Jesus,  Thou  art  pleading 

In  accents  meek  and  low, 
'  I  died  for  thee,  My  children, 

And  will  ye  treat  Me  so  ? ' 
Oh  Lord,  with  shame  and  sorrow, 

We  open  now  the  door. 
Dear  Master,  enter,  enter, 

And  leave  us  nevermore." 

Will  you  say  this  now  ? 


THE  NEW  COMMANDMENT 


Surely  He  cometh,  and  a  thousand  voices 
Call  to  the  saints  and  to  the  deaf  are  dumb  ; 

Surely  He  cometh,  and  the  earth  rejoices, 

Glad  in  His  coming  -who  hath  sworn,  I  come. 

This  hath  He  done  and  shall  we  not  adore  Him  ? 

This  shall  He  do  and  can  we  still  despair  ? 
Come  let  us  quickly  fling  ourselves  before  Him, 

Cast  at  His  feet  the  burthen  of  our  care. 

Flash  from  our  eyes  the  glow  of  our  thanksgiving, 
Glad  and  regretful,  confident  and  calm, 

Then  thro"  all  life  and  what  is  after  living 
Thrill  to  the  tireless  music  of  a  psalm. 

Yea  thro1  life,  death,  thro1  sorrow  and  thro"  sinning 
He  shall  suffice  me,  for  He  hath  sufficed  : 

Christ  is  the  end,  for  Christ  was  the  beginning, 
Christ  the  beginning,  for  the  end  is  Christ. 

—F.  W.  H.  Myers. 


VII 

THE  NEW  COMMANDMENT 

Little  children,  yet  a  little  while  I  am  with  you. 
Ye  shall  seek  Me :  and  as  I  said  unto  the  Jews, 
Whither  I  go,  ye  cannot  come ;  so  now  I  say  to  you, 
A  new  commandment  I  give  unto  you,  That  ye  love 
one  another ;  as  I  have  loved  you,  that  ye  also  love 
one  another.  By  this  shall  all  men  know  that  ye  are 
My  disciples,  if  ye  have  love  one  to  another. — JOHN 
*i».  33-35- 

THERE  is  a  saying  of  Mr.  Ruskin's  that 
of  all  the  pulpits  from  which  the  human 
voice  is  ever  sent  forth,  there  is  none 
from  which  it  reaches  so  far  as  from  the 
grave.  We  all  know  with  what  tender 
receptiveness  we  listen  to  the  last  words 
of  those  whom  we  love,  as  they  draw 
near  to  that  hour  when  they  cross  the 
bar  and  see  the  pilot  face  to  face.  It 
must  have  been  with  much  deeper  re- 
ceptiveness that  the  eleven  disciples  who 
were  left  in  the  upper  room  after  Judas 
had  gone  out  into  the  night  listened  to 
these  words  of  Jesus.  He  had  been  pre- 
169 


190  "Remember  Jesus  Christ" 

paring  them  for  this  hour.  Everything 
that  had  transpired  showed  them  that  the 
clouds  were  gathering  thick  and  dense 
above  their  Master's  head.  And  if  His 
appearance  had  not  told  them  that  the 
words  He  was  about  to  speak  were  to  be 
words  of  special  importance  to  them,  the 
way  in  which  He  began  His  remarks 
must  have  told  them:  "  Little  children,  I 
am  going  away  from  you."  It  is  the  only 
time  as  far  as  the  Gospels  tell  us  that  He 
used  that  term  of  address.  Even  in  this 
Gospel,  which  of  them  all  shows  us  most 
fully  the  intimacy  of  the  relation  which 
existed  between  Jesus  and  His  disciples, 
the  term  "Little  children"  is  used  but 
once.  In  the  last  chapter,  John  tells  us 
that  when  Jesus  stood  on  the  shores  of 
the  Sea  of  Galilee  and  looked  off  through 
the  grey  morning  to  where  the  disciples 
were  in  their  boat,  tired  after  their  fruit- 
less night,  He  said  to  them,  "My  lads, 
have  you  anything  there  to  eat  ?  "  It  is 
Jesus'  own  word,  "My  lads!"  Here, 
however,  it  was  more  tender  than  that, 
"Little  children,  dear  little  children." 
How  sweet  it  must  have  sounded  \f> 


The  New  Commandment    191 

them,  one  can  guess  from  tfie  frequency 
with  which  the  beloved  John  repeated  it 
afterward.  Six  or  seven  times  in  his 
Epistle  he  addresses  those  to  whom  he 
is  writing  as  "Little  children,  dear  little 
children."  And  one  of  the  best  attested 
of  all  the  legends  about  John  tells  us  that 
as  an  old  man,  when  they  carried  him 
each  day  into  the  Christian  church  at 
Ephesus,  he  was  wont  to  say,  "Little 
children,  love  one  another."  They  asked 
him  once  whether  he  was  not  tired  of 
repeating  the  same  message  over  and 
over  again,  but  he  replied  that  it  was 
the  whole  of  the  gospel, — if  they  had 
that  it  was  enough.  The  only  other 
place  in  the  New  Testament  where  the 
term  occurs  as  a  term  of  address,  is  in 
one  of  the  most  passionately  eager  pas- 
sages in  all  the  writings  of  Paul,  where 
he  tells  the  Galatians  that  he  was  travail- 
ing for  them,  as  a  mother  in  childbirth, 
that  Christ  might  be  formed  in  them,  and 
he  begins  the  sentence  with  this  word, 
"Little  children." 

Jesus  meant  undoubtedly  to  draw  His 
disciples  for  these  closing  moments  into 


192  "Remember  Jesus  Christ" 

the  warmest  personal  relationship  with 
Himself.  He  was  the  Father's  child,  they 
were  His  little  children;  He  would  re- 
mind them  of  it  as  they  gathered  to- 
gether on  this  last  evening  of  His  earthly 
life.  They  had  heard  Him  speak  of  this 
same  truth  before.  In  the  parable  of  the 
Good  Shepherd  He  had  said  that  He 
knew  His  sheep  and  was  known  by 
them,  that  even  as  He  knew  the  Father, 
so  the  Father  knew  Him,  and  that,  be- 
cause of  His  relationship  to  the  sheep  on 
one  side  and  to  the  Father  on  the  other 
side,  therefore  He  would  lay  down  His 
life  for  the  sheep.  He  knew  that  they 
had  not  understood  the  relationship,  for 
in  this  same  evening's  talk  He  told  them 
so.  "I  know,"  He  said,  "that  you  do 
not  understand  this  now,  but  the  day 
will  come  when  you  shall  understand  it, 
that  I  am  in  the  Father  and  ye  are  in  Me 
and  I  in  you;  ye  are  His  little  children 
and  Mine." 

"Little  children,"  He  said,  "I  am 
going  away  from  you.  This  is  the  last 
evening  we  shall  have  together.  What  I 
am  now  about  to  tell  you  is  the  last 


The  New  Commandment    193 

thing  I  shall  tell  you  before  I  depart." 
Not  forever  did  He  say  that  they  were 
to  separate.  In  talking  with  the  Jews, 
He  had  said  that  whither  He  was  going 
they  could  never  go;  for  they  should  die 
in  their  sins.  But  He  did  not  say  that  to 
His  disciples.  "  I  am  going  away,"  He 
said,  "  and  whither  I  am  going  ye  cannot 
come  just  now,  but  ye  shall  follow  Me 
afterward.  Indeed,  I  will  come  again 
for  you." 

Luke  shows  us  even  mote  clearly  than 
John  how  careful  Jesus  was  in  this  last  in- 
terview to  lead  His  disciples  up  to  the  mo- 
ment of  separation;  how  anxious  to  for- 
tify them  against  all  the  fears  which  He 
knew  would  come  upon  them  the  mo- 
ment He  was  gone;  but  even  with  all 
that  preparation,  it  must  have  been  an 
hour  of  great  agony  both  to  Him  and  to 
them.  He  knew,  of  course,  that  the 
Father  would  keep  them,  that  not  one  of 
the  Father's  sheep  would  be  plucked  out 
of  the  Father's  hand,  but  He  knew  also 
that  when  the  Shepherd  was  smitten,  the 
sheep  would  be  scattered,  and  He  had 
heard  Satan  desiring  to  have  them.  Far 


194  "Remember  Jesus  Christ" 

better  than  the  disciples  knew,  torn  as 
their  hearts  must  have  been,  did  Jesus 
know  the  significance  of  that  hour.  I 
well  recall  a  quiet  room  in  an  old  Penn- 
sylvania town,  when  more  than  twenty 
years  ago  a  father  led  his  children  into 
its  holy  stillness  and  prayed  that  One 
who  had  promised  to  be  a  father  to  the 
fatherless  might  also  be  a  mother  to  the 
motherless.  Very  little  did  we  know 
what  it  meant,  but  the  one  who  prayed 
knew,  and  the  knowledge  was  agony. 
It  must  have  been  so  with  Jesus  this 
night.  He  knew  that  He  who  had  been 
their  one  safeguard  through  these  three 
long  years  was  to  be  taken  from  them. 
It  must  have  made  these  last  mo- 
ments unusually  sacred  to  Him.  And 
heavy  witted  as  that  company  of  fisher- 
folk  and  countrymen  were,  they  too 
knew  something  of  the  significance  of 
the  hour.  They  had  been  leaning  for 
these  three  years  heavily  on  Him.  "To 
whom  else  shall  we  go,"  said  Peter, 
"Thou  hast  the  words  of  eternal  life." 
And  when  they  could  not  prevail  upon 
Jesus  to  avoid  running  the  physical  risks 


The  New  Commandment    195 

which  were  involved  in  going  to  Bethany, 
Thomas  said,  "Let  us  also  go,  that  we 
may  die  with  Him.  Better  for  us  to  go 
to  death  with  Him  than  to  stay  here 
alone  in  safety  and  in  peace."  They 
were  to  be  separated  from  Him  now, 
and  they  knew  it.  If  they  had  known 
it  from  nothing  else  they  would  have 
known  it  from  what  He  said:  "Dear  lit- 
tle children,  I  am  going  away."  They 
must  have  felt  that  what  He  was  about 
to  say  would  be  of  unusual  importance  to 
each  of  them. 

One  can  imagine  the  little  company 
listening  intently  to  catch  the  words  that 
might  fall  from  His  lips;  James  and  Peter 
expecting  Him  to  define  more  clearly 
what  was  to  be  the  form  of  organization 
of  the  new  Christian  kingdom  or  society. 
John  and  James  were  both  men  of  that 
temperament.  They  had  come  asking 
through  their  mother,  that  they  might 
have  places  on  His  right  and  left  hand 
in  His  kingdom.  Over  this  question  all 
the  disciples  had  quarrelled.  Perhaps  they 
sat  now  wondering  if  He  would  not  as- 
sign them  their  places  and  give  them  the 


196  "Remember  Jesus  Christ" 

constitution  of  His  society.  Perhaps  Bar- 
tholomew and  Thomas  were  waiting  for 
Jesus  to  give  them  a  clearer  and  fuller 
statement  of  His  doctrine.  It  was  to  be 
one  of  His  most  famous  sayings  that  eter- 
nal life  consisted  in  the  knowledge  of  God 
and  His  Son  Jesus  Christ.  He  tells  the 
Father  in  the  great  high  priestly  prayer 
that  He  had  delivered  to  the  apostles  the 
words  the  Father  had  sent  by  Him.  One 
could  not  wonder  that  Nathanael  and 
Thomas,  each  of  them  probably  lovers  of 
clear  doctrine,  should  have  been  anxious 
to  get  from  Jesus  in  that  last  hour  some 
succinct  and  simple  statement  of  the  new 
truth,  on  which  they  could  rest  and  which 
they  could  use.  Did  Jesus  gratify  these 
expectations  ?  "  Dear  little  children,  I  am 
going  away  from  you  now,  and  My  last 
word  to  you  is  just  this,  A  new  com- 
mandment I  give  to  you,  that  ye  love  one 
another." 

Our  Lord's  words  gained  additional 
significance  from  the  fact  that  He  said 
almost  nothing  else  that  was  new.  Peo- 
ple thought  He  was  a  novel  teacher  when 
He  healed  the  sick  man  in  the  synagogue 


The  New  Commandment    197 

at  Capernaum.  They  held  up  their  hands 
in  amazement  and  said,  "  What  is  this,  a 
new  teaching?"  But  it  was  not.  Al- 
most everything  Christ  said  was  old. 
Christ's  teaching  was  almost  all  taken 
out  of  the  Old  Testament.  Almost  all 
of  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount  could  be 
constructed  from  the  Old  Testament. 
Many  of  Christ's  parables  have  their  roots 
in  suggestions  in  the  Old  Testament. 
Some  of  Christ's  miracles  are  clearly  only 
the  working  out  of  Old  Testament  teach- 
ings. The  body  and  substance  of  Christ's 
doctrine  was  borrowed,  with  a  new  spirit 
and  life  of  course,  from  the  Old  Testa- 
ment. There  was  a  marvelous  divine 
originality  about  Jesus  which  should  be 
studied  deeply  and  never  forgotten,  but 
He  was  constantly  telling  those  who 
took  Him  for  a  novel  instructor,  that 
everything  was  in  their  own  records  and 
temples  if  their  eyes  were  only  open  to 
see  it.  He  would  tell  the  healed  to  go 
and  carry  out  the  law  of  Moses.  Only 
three  times  does  He  allude  to  the  nov- 
elty of  His  teaching;  once  in  one  of  His 
parables  when  He  said  that  no  man  puts 


198  "Remember  Jesus  Christ" 

new  wine  into  old  bottles,  or  patches  an 
old  garment  with  a  new  piece  of  cloth ; 
again  when  He  said  that  every  good 
scribe  of  the  kingdom  is  like  a  house- 
holder that  bringeth  out  of  his  treasures 
things  new  and  old;  then  once  again  as 
He  passed  the  wine  cup  from  His  own 
hand  to  the  hand  of  the  next,  "This  cup 
is  the  New  Covenant  in  My  blood.  I 
will  no  more  drink  of  the  fruit  of  the 
vine,  until  that  day  when  I  drink  it  new 
in  the  kingdom  of  God." 

It  makes  it  the  more  startling  that  on 
the  last  night  of  His  earthly  life  He 
should  tell  His  disciples  that  He  was 
speaking  to  them  something  new.  His 
words  are  the  more  surprising  when  we 
consider  that  this  was  the  last  element  of 
His  teaching  which  one  might  conceive 
to  be  new.  The  Old  Testament  was 
clear  enough  in  its  commands  to  love: 
"Thou  shalt  love  thy  neighbor  as  thy- 
self/' In  what  respect  then  was  this 
command  to  love,  given  to  the  disciples 
on  this  last  night,  a  new  commandment  ? 
Was  it  new  in  the  sense  that  it  supple- 
mented the  old  ten,  making  an  eleventh 


The  New  Commandment    199 

commandment,  giving  men  something 
that  had  never  been  given  them  before; 
or  did  it  abrogate  the  ten,  giving  men  a 
law  of  love,  whereas  before  they  had 
had  a  law  of  stern  duty  only  ?  Clearly 
not,  because  when  Christ  was  asked  by 
a  scribe  as  to  what  commandment  was 
first  of  all,  He  said  plainly,  "The  first  is, 
Hear,  O  Israel;  the  Lord  our  God  is  one 
Lord:  and  thou  shalt  love  the  Lord  thy 
God  with  all  thy  heart,  and  with  all  thy 
soul,  and  with  all  thy  mind,  and  with  all 
thy  strength.  The  second  is  this,  Thou 
shalt  love  thy  neighbor  as  thyself."  The 
commandment  as  a  commandment  could 
not  have  been  new  then  in  the  sense  that 
Jesus  commanded  love  while  the  old  ten 
commandments  did  not  contain  it.  Was 
it  new  as  being  an  interpretation  of  the 
old,  putting  the  emphasis  now  on  the 
spirit,  while  the  old  ten  had  put  it  on 
the  letter  ?  Clearly  not  that  even.  The 
ten  commandments  were  a  law  of  love. 
Love  was  their  fulfilling.  In  what  sense 
then  was  the  commandment  that  our 
Lord  gave  His  apostles  that  night  a  new 
commandment  ?  It  must  have  been  that 


2oo  "Remember  Jesus  Christ" 

He  was  commanding  them  to  possess 
and  to  manifest  a  new  kind  of  love  that 
had  not  been  known  in  the  world  before, 
and  that  this  love  was  so  novel  that  He 
could  speak  of  it  as  new.  One  who  had 
followed  His  teaching  carefully  might 
have  expected  something  of  this  kind, 
for  early  in  His  ministry  He  had  said*. 

Ye  have  heard  that  it  was  said,  Thou  shalt  love 
thy  neighbor,  and  hate  thine  enemy :  but  I  say  unto 
you,  Love  your  enemies,  and  pray  for  them  that 
persecute  you,  that  ye  may  be  the  sons  of  your 
Father  which  is  in  heaven  :  for  He  maketh  His  sun 
to  rise  on  the  evil  and  on  the  good,  and  sendeth  rain 
on  the  just  and  the  unjust.  For  if  ye  love  them 
which  love  you  what  reward  have  ye  ?  do  not  even 
the  publicans  the  same  ?  And  if  ye  salute  your 
brethren  only,  what  do  ye  more  than  others  ?  do  not 
even  the  Gentiles  so  ?  Be  ye  therefore  perfect,  even 
as  your  heavenly  Father  is  perfect. 

Any  Jew  might  have  expected,  if  he  was 
an  honest,  sincere,  open-hearted  man, 
prepared  to  recognize  the  true  Messiah, 
some  word  from  Jesus  of  a  positive  char- 
acter regarding  love.  There  was  need  of 
it.  Hillel,  one  of  the  most  famous  Rab- 
binical teachers  summed  up  the  whole 


The  New  Commandment    201 

law  in  these  words,  "That  which  is  hate- 
ful to  thee  thou  shalt  not  do  to  thy  neigh- 
bor: this  is  the  whole  law,  the  rest  is 
only  commentary."  It  might  properly 
have  been  expected  of  Jesus  that  at  this 
time  He  would  speak  some  word  about 
love.  He  gave  them  a  command  to  love 
with  a  larger,  positive,  transfigured  love, 
not  as  the  Old  Testament  had  said,  "as 
thyself,"  but  better  than  thyself. 

Sometime  ago  I  was  present  at  a  gath- 
ering of  ministers,  where  the  subject  for 
discussion  was,  "  What  should  be  the  at- 
titude of  the  Christian  minister  toward 
the  new  movement  in  Christian  sociol- 
ogy?" A  theological  professor  main- 
tained that  the  attitude  should  be  hostile, 
on  the  ground  that  it  was  unscriptural  to 
say  that  we  should  love  our  neighbors 
better  than  ourselves.  Yet  such  a  com- 
mand gave  Jesus  Christ:  "  A  new  com- 
mandment give  1  unto  you,  that  ye  love 
one  another;  even  as  I  have  loved  you, 
that  ye  also  love  one  another."  A  new 
love,  of  new  motive,  new  scope,  new 
sanction,  establishing  a  new  society, 
bound  not  by  any  rites  or  organization, 


202  "Remember  Jesus  Christ" 

but  by  self-obliterating  love:  this  was 
what  Christ  commanded,  and  as  Wendt, 
;n  "The  Teaching  of  Jesus,"  points  out, 
"The  nature  and  intensity  of  this  love 
which  Jesus  taught  and  which  He  Him- 
self manifested,  were  such  as  had  yet  no 
sure  basis  in  the  Old  Testament  knowl- 
edge of  God  and  as  had  not  yet  been 
recognized  as  belonging  unconditionally 
to  the  righteousness  commanded  by  God; 
therefore  this  commandment  of  love,  as 
Jesus  Himself  had  practiced  it,  could  be 
characterized  as  a  new  commandment." 

"  Little  children,  I  am  going  away,  but 
I  will  leave  with  you  a  new  command- 
ment, that  ye  love  one  another;  even  as  I 
have  loved  you,  that  ye  also  love  one  an- 
other." The  heart  of  the  matter  lies  in 
those  little  words,  "even  as  I  have  loved 
you,"  which  furnish,  first,  the  explana- 
tion of  the  new  commandment,  and  de- 
fine the  character  of  the  new  love;  and 
supply,  secondly,  the  motive,  the  power, 
to  enable  us  to  love  as  Christ  loves. 

Those  words  furnish  us  an  EXAMPLE  of 
.how  we  are  to  love.  It  is  a  rich  theme, 
Out  let  us  take  up  only  three  traits  of  the 


The  New  Commandment    203 

Jove  of  Jesus  which  we  are  here  bidden 
to  have  in  our  own  loving. 

His  love  is  a  self-sacrificing  love. 
"  Greater  love  hath  no  man  than  this,  that 
a  man  lay  down  his  life  for  his  friends." 
With  that  in  mind,  Paul  writes  lovingly 
to  the  Ephesians,  "Walk  in  love,  as  dear 
children,  inasmuch  as  Christ  also  hath 
loved  us,  and  hath  given  Himself  for  us." 
John  declares  the  same  truth,  "  Herein  is 
love,  not  that  we  loved  God,  but  that 
God  loved  us,  and  sent  His  Son  to  be  the 
propitiation  for  our  sins.  Beloved,  if 
God  so  loved  us,  we  ought  also  to  love 
one  another."  This  is  the  truth  regard- 
ing Christ's  love  that  the  German  verses 
proclaim : 

"  A  Lamb  goes  uncomplaining  forth, 

The  guilt  of  all  men  bearing ; 
Laden  with  all  the  sin  of  earth, 

None  else  the  burden  sharing ! 
Goes  patient  on,  grows  weak  and  faint, 
To  slaughter  led  without  complaint, 

That  spotless  life  to  offer ; 

Bears  shame,  and  stripes,  and  wounds,  and  death, 
Anguish  and  mockery,  and  saitb, 
•  Willing  all  this  I  suffer.' 


204  "Remember  Jesus  Christ" 

"  That  Lamb  is  Lord  of  death  and  life, 

God  over  all  forever ; 
The  Father's  Son,  whom  to  that  strife 

Love  doth  for  us  deliver ! 
Oh  mighty  love !  what  hast  thou  done  ? 
The  Father  offers  up  His  Son  — 

The  Son  content  descendeth ! 
Oh  love,  oh  love  !  how  strong  art  thou ! 
In  shroud  and  grave  thou  layest  Him  low. 
Whose  word  the  mountain  rendeth !  " 

So  we  are  to  love.  There  is  such  love 
in  the  world.  During  the  civil  war,  in 
the  naval  battle  when  Farragut's  squadron 
sailed  into  Mobile  Bay,  the  monitor 
Tecumseh  was  struck  by  a  torpedo  and 
began  to  sink.  The  only  way  of  escape 
was  by  a  narrow  ladder,  and  a  small 
door  through  which  but  one  could  go  at 
a  time.  The  pilot  and  captain  both 
sprang  for  the  ladder  at  the  same  moment, 
but  the  instant  Captain  Craven  saw  that 
another  man  was  seeking  life,  and  that 
there  was  time  for  but  one,  he  stepped 
back  with  a  bow  and  the  courteous,  quiet 
words,  "After  you,  pilot,"  and  went 
down  with  his  ship  into  the  sea. 
"Greater  love  hath  no  man  than  this, 
that  a  man  lay  down  his  life  for  his 


The  New  Commandment   205 

friends."  Christ  loved  so,  and  so  must  we 
love. 

Remember  another  characteristic  of 
Christ's  love :  it  condescended.  ' '  Scarcely 
for  a  righteous  man  will  one  die,"  said 
Paul.  "Scarcely  for  such  an  one  would 
one  die.  Peradventure,  for  a  good  man 
some  would  even  dare  to  die,  but  God 
commendeth  His  own  love  toward  us,  in 
that,  while  we  were  yet  sinners,  Christ 
died  for  us."  There  was  no  barrier  too 
high  for  Him  to  surmount,  there  was  no 
chasm  too  wide  for  Him  to  cross.  The 
Son  of  God  reached  us  in  His  love.  Think 
over  the  circle  of  the  people  you  love  and 
see  between  how  many  of  them  and  you 
there  is  any  chasm  in  the  social  life? 
Have  you  not  picked  those  you  love  from 
that  sphere  which  will  not  necessitate 
your  going  down  to  them  ?  It  was  not 
so  with  Jesus  Christ's  love. 

And  He  loved  with  an  eternal  love. 
This  chapter  begins  with  these  words: 
"  Having  loved  His  own  which  were  in 
the  world,  He  loved  them  unto  the  utter- 
most." Having  loved  them  once,  He 
loved  them  ever.  I  love  to  turn  to  the 


206  "Remember  Jesus  Christ" 

story  in  Matthew  of  the  betrayal  of  Jesus 
by  Judas  to  mark  the  tone  of  address 
with  which  Christ  spoke  to  Judas  when 
he  came  leading  the  band  of  soldier 
hirelings.  •  We  might  suppose  that  Christ 
would  have  turned  to  him  with  scorn 
saying, ' '  Thou  serpent !  After  these  three 
years,  is  this  My  reward  thatthou  comest 
to  Me  with  this  blistering  kiss  ?  Depart 
from  Me  into  the  eternal  night  and  let 
Me  never  see  thy  face  or  feel  thy  hands 
that  have  held  the  silver  coins."  Have 
you  ever  noticed  what  the  Gospel  of 
Matthew  says  He  did  say  ?  He  turned  to 
Judas  with  the  words,  "Friend,  where- 
fore art  thou  come  ?  "  The  Greek  word 
does  not  really  mean  "friend,"  but  the 
spirit  of  that  translation  is  true.  Treason 
was  not  enough  to  break  the  bands  of 
that  love.  There  is  no  such  thing  as  a 
love  that  stops.  It  never  was  love  if  it 
stops.  He  that  has  loved  loves  still. 
Love  cannot  change.  Sensations  and 
convictions  alter,  but  while  God  is  God 
love  changeth  not  nor  can  till  God  denies 
Himself.  "They  sin  who  tell  us  love 
can  die,"  says  Southey.  Never  say  that 


The  New  Commandment    207 

you  had  a  friend  and  have  not  that  friend 
still.  Never  let  a  Christian  say  that  the 
love  he  once  felt  is  dead.  No  love  ever 
dies.  Emotions  have  died,  sensations 
have  died,  imaginations  have  died,  but  a 
love  never.  When  Christ  bids  us  love  as 
He  loved,  He  sets  us  this  example  of  self- 
sacrificing,  condescending,  unchangeable 
love.  As  His  we  must  so  love  one  another. 
Writing  on  this  passage  in  his  "Dis- 
courses on  the  Gospel  of  St.  John,"  that 
great  prophet,  Frederick  Denison  Maurice, 
has  said  that  if  these  words  are  "mere 
precept  written  in  letters  in  a  book,  it  is 
the  crudest  precept  that  was  ever 
uttered."  We  can  love  "in  obedience  to 
no  statute,  from  dread  of  no  punish- 
ment." There  are  two  answers  to  that: 
First,  love  can  be  commanded.  The  con- 
tradictory proposition  can  be  defended 
only  by  resting  on  an  indefensible  psy- 
chology. Our  affections  in  their  true 
dignity  are  children  of  the  will.  Who 
can  answer  Browning's  teaching  in  "Pippa 
Passes,"  that  love  does  not  depend  on 
the  lovableness  of  the  object  of  love  ?  Is 
there  anything  attractive  in  us?  God 


208  "Remember  Jesus  Christ" 

loves  us  in  spite  of  our  hideousness  and 
unloveliness,  because  He  wills  to  love  us. 
Love  is  a  moral  attitude.  God  can  com- 
mand it. 

But  Christ  Himself  removes  Maurice's 
difficulty.  What  Christ  said  was,  freely 
rendered,  "I  command  you  to  love  one 
another.  I  love  you  into  loving  one  an- 
other." First  of  all  He  bade  them  to  do 
it,  then  He  said  He  would  love  them  into 
doing  it.  That  is  what  John  means  when 
he  says,  "We  love  because  He  first 
loved  us."  He  planted  the  seed  in  us 
which  has  grown  into  the  tree  of  love. 
"As  I  have  loved  you  into  loving,  so  love 
ye  one  another."  George  Bowen,  whom 
Bishop  Taylor  called  the  lamb  of  India, 
thus  expresses  it  in  his  sweet  meditations 
on  "Love  Revealed":  "I  give  you  a 
new  commandment,  that  ye  love  one  an- 
other. But  why  do  you  look  at  Me  with 
such  blank  unsatisfied  expression  of 
countenance  ?  Is  this  a  little  gift  (an  im- 
possible gift)  ?  Know  then  that  I  My- 
self am  love  incarnate;  I  have  clothed 
Myself  with  flesh  that  I  might  reign  in 
your  hearts.  Love  one  another  as  I  have 


The  New  Commandment    209 

loved  you  (into  loving  one  another)  and 
you  will  no  longer  find  Me  absent." 

How  good  it  would  have  been  even 
if  He  had  stopped  there!  How  sweet  if 
we  had  to  rest  our  hearts  simply  on  that 
bidding  to  love!  But  how  good  also  His 
next  words!  "By  this  shall  all  men 
know  that  ye  are  My  disciples,  if  ye  have 
love  one  to  another."  Think  of  these 
words  a  moment!  In  them  He  declares 
that  obedience  to  this  commandment 
makes  up  the  essence,  the  test,  and  the 
power  of  Christianity. 

Jesus  says  it  makes  up  the  essence  of 
Christianity.  Loving  is  a  great  thing.  It 
is  the  greatest  thing.  As  one  who  ad- 
heres to  the  old  landmarks  in  Christian 
thinking,  I  reverently  urge  that  Jesus  said 
that  the  first  essential  element  in  the 
Christian  life  was  not  sound  doctrine  but 
love.  As  one  who  clings  with  affection 
to  the  oldest  and  simplest  ecclesiastical 
conceptions,  I  lovingly  mark  that  Christ 
said  that  the  essence  of  Christianity  is 
not  in  ritual  or  liturgy  or  apostolic  line- 
age of  ecclesiastical  organization,  but  in 
love.  Paul  says:  "  Love  is  the  fulfilling 


2io  "Remember  Jesus  Christ" 

of  the  law."  This  was  realized  in  the 
early  Christian  community.  The  essence 
of  the  gospel  was  there,  for  they  loved 
one  another.  "Seeing,"  said  Simon 
Peter,  and  it  gives  us  a  new  glimpse  into 
the  personal  experiences  and  struggles  of 
those  early  Christians,  "seeing  ye  have 
purified  your  souls  in  your  obedience  to 
the  truth  unto  unfeigned  love  of  the 
brethren,  love  one  another  from  the  heart 
fervently."  The  fierceness  with  which 
James  attacks  those  who  put  aside  one 
part  of  the  church  for  the  men  with  gold 
rings  and  fine  clothing,  and  another  for 
the  paupers  and  the  poorly  clad,  is  only 
a  testimony  to  the  strength  of  the  hold 
which  the  gospel  of  love  had  gained 
upon  the  best  members  of  the  early 
Christian  community.  It  was  love  that 
caused  the  mention  of  Quartus  in  the 
Epistle  to  the  Romans.  A  poor  Corin- 
thian artisan,  he  happened  to  be  present 
when  Paul  was  writing  and  said,  "  Paul, 
I  love  them  too,  send  my  love  " ;  and  his 
name  was  put  down  there  with  the 
wealthy  members  of  the  Corinthian 
church,  because  he  loved. 


The  New  Commandment    2 1 1 

The  test  of  Christianity  is  love.  It  is 
not  adherence  to  sound  doctrine,  impor- 
tant as  that  is,  nor  membership  in  a 
church  whose  organization  is  believed  to 
rest  upon  the  authority  of  the  scriptures 
or  of  the  apostles.  "  By  this  shall  all  men 
know  that  ye  are  My  disciples,  if  ye  have 
love  one  to  another."  Our  discipleship 
is  our  glory.  "  Herein  is  My  Father  glo- 
rified, that  ye  bear  much  fruit;  so  shall  ye 
be  My  disciples."  God  and  we  are  both 
glorified  by  our  meeting  the  test  that 
shows  that  we  are  His  disciples.  Read 
from  the  First  Epistle  of  John: 

"  In  this  the  children  of  God  are  manifest,  and  the 
children  of  the  devil:  whosoever  doeth  not  right- 
eousness is  not  of  God,  neither  he  that  loveth  not  his 
brother.  For  this  is  the  message  which  ye  heard 
from  the  beginning,  that  we  should  love  one  another. 
.  .  .  We  know  that  we  have  passed  out  of  death 
into  life  "— 

Why  ?  Because  we  believe  the  creeds  ? 
I  do  not  depreciate  them.  No,  "because 
we  love  the  brethren."  "  He  that  loveth 
not  abideth  in  death."  There  are  men 
who  will  not  speak  to  their  brothers  at- 
tending the  same  church,  and  yet  in  their 


212  "Remember  Jesus  Christ" 

Bible  as  in  ours  are  these  words,  "  Who- 
soever hateth  his  brother  is  a  murderer; 
and  ye  know  that  no  murderer  hath 
eternal  life  abiding  in  him.  Hereby 
know  we  love,  because  He  laid  down 
His  life  for  us,  and  we  ought  to  lay 
down  our  lives  for  the  brethren."  Do 
we  love  ?  No  ?  Then  we  are  not  His. 
It  is  His  own  test. 

And  Jesus  said  also,  that  obedience  to 
this  commandment  is  to  constitute  the 
power  of  Christianity.  "  By  this  SHALL 
ALL  MEN  know  ye  are  My  disciples,  if  ye 
have  love  one  to  another."  This  same 
night,  after  having  left  this  little  upper 
room,  He  spoke  practically  these  same 
words : 

"  Neither  for  these  only  do  I  pray,  but  for  them 
also  that  believe  on  Me  through  their  word ;  that 
they  may  all  be  one,  even  as  Thou,  Father,  art  in 
Me,  and  I  in  Thee,  that  they  also  may  be  in  Us : 
that  the  world  may  believe  that  Thou  didst  send  Me. 
And  the  glory  which  Thou  hast  given  Me,  I  have 
given  unto  them ;  that  they  may  be  one,  even  as  We 
are  one ;  I  in  them,  and  Thou  in  Me,  that  they  may 
be  perfected  into  one ;  that  the  world  may  know 
that  Thou  didst  send  M«J,  and  lovedst  them,  even  a* 
Thou  lovedst  Me." 


The  New  Commandment    213 

Do  we  lack  power?  Do  we  love?  "The 
sight  of  a  Christian  community  whose 
members  love  one  another  is  the  irresist- 
ible argument  for  Chistianity."  Let  us 
apply  these  words  to  our  hearts  in  the 
narrow  sense.  We  long  to  be  personal 
workers,  to  be  able  to  draw  souls  to  Christ. 
Perhaps  we  have  found  it  difficult.  Have 
we  loved  ?  If  we  loved  souls  as  Christ 
loved  them,  we  should  be  able  to  draw 
them  in.  If  we  longed  for  them  with  a 
yearning  such  as  was  in  the  cry  of  Paul! 

"  Oft,  when  the  word  is  on  me  to  deliver, 

Lifts  the  illusion  and  the  truth  lies  bare, 
Desert  or  throng,  the  city  or  the  river, 
Melts  in  a  lucid  paradise  of  air. 

"  Only  like  souls  I  see  the  folk  thereunder 

Bound  who  should  conquer,  slaves  who  should 

be  kings. 

Hearing  their  one  hope  with  an  empty  wonder 
Sadly  contented  in  a  show  of  things. 

"  Then  with  a  rush  the  intolerable  craving 

Shivers  throughout  me  like  a  trumpet  call, 
Oh,  to  save  these,  to  perish  for  their  saving, 
Die  for  their  life,  be  offered  for  them  all.  " 

Or  if  we  turn  away  from  this  close 
personal  application  to  the  broad  sense  of 


214  "Remember  Jesus  Christ" 

Christ's  words,  how  we  must  bow  our 
heads  in  shame  that  the  world  should 
stand  mocking  at  the  dissensions  and  bit- 
ternesses among  us,  while  we  have  writ- 
ten upon  our  banners  the  words,  "A  new 
commandment  I  give  unto  you,  that  ye 
love  one  another.  By  this  shall  all  men 
know  that  ye  are  My  disciples,  if  ye  have 
love  one  to  another."  As  good  George 
Bowen  says,  "When  Christians  love  one 
another  with  the  love  of  Calvary,  then 
the  people  who  dwell  in  the  heart  of 
Africa,  Australia,  China,  Japan,  Tartary, 
Arabia,  Russia,  Siberia,  America,  and 
England  will  know  who  are  the  people 
of  God,  and  will  hasten  forth,  ten  men 
laying  hold  of  the  skirts  of  one  to  learn 
the  way  of  life."  Oh  that  God  might  re- 
new among  us  that  love  which  bound  the 
early  Church  so  close  together  that  Ter- 
tullian  could  say,  "The  heathen  are  wont 
to  exclaim  with  wonder,  '  See  how  these 
Christians  love  one  another." 

How  great  is  the  need  of  this  com- 
mandment to-day!  How  greatly  we 
need  to  learn  to  love  one  another!  The 
poor  dying  world  hungers  for  the  society 


The  New  Commandment    215 

of  lovers.  There  must  be  hundreds  of 
brotherhoods  in  this  land,  Knights  of 
Pythias,  Odd  Fellows,  Free  Masons, 
Knights  of  the  Golden  Eagle, — all  sorts 
of  brotherhoods  organized  to  supply  the 
want  of  fellowship,  of  love.  Poorly  do 
they  supply  it  but  they  express  the  irre- 
pressible longing.  Our  colleges  are  full 
of  fraternities  to  supply  the  need  which 
men  and  women  feel  in  their  hearts  for 
that  which  apparently  the  Christian  life 
as  they  know  it  has  not  supplied.  The 
world  waits  to  be  loved,  to  see  the  vision 
of  men  loving  one  another,  to  feel  the 
touch  of  love. 

I  read  a  few  years  ago  in  St.  Andrew's 
Cross  the  proceedings  of  the  convention 
of  the  Brotherhood  of  St.  Andrew  at 
Washington,  where  Bishop  Potter  told  of 
an  effort  made  in  New  York  on  the  part 
of  bakers  who  were  obliged  to  work  all 
day  on  Sunday  in  hot  holes  under  ground, 
to  enlist  the  assistance  of  the  ministers  of 
Brooklyn  and  New  York  in  their  move- 
ment to  be  free  from  work  on  the  Sab- 
bath day.  They  sent  circulars  to  five 
hundred  ministers.  One  of  the  bakers  in 


2l6  "Remember  Jesus  Christ" 

talking  about  it  afterward  said,  "  Do  you 
wonder  we  don't  take  much  stock  in  the 
clergy  when  I  tell  you  that  we  got  from 
these  letters  only  six  replies  ? "  I  cut 
from  the  same  paper  recently  a  testimony 
from  another  member  of  the  St.  Andrew's 
Brotherhood  who  said  :  "Some  time  ago 
I  had  an  experience  here  much  like  that 
related  by  Bishop  Potter  concerning  the 
bakers'  union,  in  his  Washington  address 
on  '  The  City  and  the  Nation.'  The  street 
car  men  were  working  seventeen  hours  a 
day,  with  no  rest  on  Sunday.  They 
struck,  and  a  bitter  struggle  followed. 
In  the  midst  of  the  struggle  I  sent  a  printed 
letter  to  every  clergyman  in  the  city  whose 
address  I  could  get,  setting  forth  the  facts, 
and  among  others  the  fact  that  these  men 
could  not  go  to  church  if  they  wanted  to, 
yet  no  word  was  heard  from  a  single 
clergyman  in  support  of  the  men.  The 
printers  in  the  office  where  the  letters 
were  set  up  were  much  interested.  As  I 
looked  over  the  proof  several  gathered 
around  me  and  all  of  them  declared  that 
none  of  the  clergymen  would  do  anything 
about  it." 


The  New  Commandment    217 

"That  ye  should  love  one  another, 
even  as  I  have  loved  you,  that  ye  also 
should  love  one  another."  Do  you  won- 
der that  multitudes  of  men  stand  off  from 
the  Christian  Church,  saying,  "We  can 
get  brotherhood  among  non-Christian 
men.  The  great  longing  of  our  lives  is 
for  fellowship,  but  the  Christian  Church 
would  not  supply  it  for  us,  and  we  will 
stay  outside "  ?  Meanwhile  the  same 
sweet  voice  is  speaking,  "That  ye  love 
one  another."  It  is  a  command  for  be- 
lievers first,  of  course.  But  John  widens 
it  to  its  true  extent  in  his  epistle.  We 
are  to  love  all  our  brothers,  and  all  are 
our  brothers  who  are  brothers  of  Christ. 

We  are  all  of  us  responsible,  more  or 
less,  for  a  great  deal  of  the  feeling  of  an- 
tagonism to  the  respectable  churches  and 
also  for  much  of  the  unmerited  criticism 
of  the  Church.  We  pass  along  the 
street.  A  badly  dressed  man  is  jostled 
by  us,  and  we  merely  look  around  in  an 
irritated  way  as  much  as  to  say,  "You 
should  not  have  been  in  my  way."  A 
svell-dressed  man  is  jostled  by  us  and  we 
turn  around  politely  to  ask  his  pardon. 


218  "Remember  Jesus  Christ" 

Is  it  not  widening  the  breach  between 
the  "down"  and  the  "up,"  which  is  a 
hellish  breach,  and  which  would  not  ex- 
ist if  we  all  loved  one  another  ?  Would 
that  we  might  learn  this  lesson,  and  that 
although  we  separate  here  we  might 
hearken  to  the  words  of  Christ,  "  A  new 
commandment  1  give  unto  you,  that  ye 
love  one  another;  even  as  I  have  loved 
you  that  ye  also  love  one  another." 

Such  freedom,  such  satisfaction,  such 
rest,  will  come  to  us  if  we  are  willing  to 
enter  into  this  life  of  love. 

"  I  know  a  bush  that  fire  does  not  destroy, 

I  know  a  flower  that  heat  can  but  expand, 
I  know  a  sacrifice  whose  root  is  joy, 
I  know  an  altar  that  unbinds  the  hand. 

«•  Love  is  that  altar ;  in  its  cleansing  fires 

The  tree  of  life  grows  green  with  youth  again, 
And  in  the  fervor  that  its  flame  inspires 
The  captive  heart  forgets  its  former  pain. 

«*  Put  on  my  fetters  and  thou  shalt  be  free ; 

Embrace  my  altar  and  thy  cords  shall  fall ; 
Become  love's  captive,  and  thy  soul  shall  be 
Lord  of  itself  and  master  over  all." 

But  the  same  truth  is  put  more  lov- 


The  New  Commandment    219 

ingly,  more  profoundly,  and  in  diviner 
tones  in  these  other  words  to  which  our 
hearts  may  well  turn  at  the  close  of  this 
good  Sabbath  day : 

Beloved,  let  us  love  one  another :  for  love  is  of 
God ;  and  every  one  that  loveth  is  begotten  of  God, 
and  knoweth  God.  He  that  loveth  not  knoweth  not 
God ;  for  God  is  love.  Herein  was  the  love  of  God 
manifested  in  us,  that  God  hath  sent  His  only  begot- 
ten Son  into  the  world,  that  we  might  live  through 
Him.  Herein  is  love,  not  that  we  loved  God,  but 
that  He  loved  us,  and  sent  His  Son  to  be  the  propiti- 
ation for  our  sins.  Beloved,  if  God  so  loved  us,  we 
also  ought  to  love  one  another.  No  man  hath  be- 
held God  at  any  time :  if  we  love  one  another,  God 
abideth  in  us,  and  His  love  is  perfected  in  us : 
hereby  know  we  that  we  abide  in  Him,  and  He  in 
us,  because  He  hath  given  us  of  His  Spirit.  .  .  . 
And  we  know  and  have  believed  the  love  which  God 
hath  in  us.  God  is  love ;  and  he  that  abideth  in  love 
abideth  in  God,  and  God  abideth  in  him.  Herein  is 
love  made  perfect  with  us,  that  we  may  have  bold- 
ness in  the  day  of  judgment ;  because  as  He  is,  even 
so  are  we  iif  this  world.  There  is  no  fear  in  love . 
but  perfect  love  casteth  out  fear,  because  fear  hath 
punishment ;  and  he  that  feareth  is  not  made  perfect 
in  love.  We  love,  because  He  first  loved  us.  If  a 
man  say,  I  lore  God,  and  hateth  his  brother,  he  is  a 
liar! 


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ELBCTBICITT  AND  ITS 

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OUTLINE 

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FT.KMTXG    H.  BEVEUL    COMPANT 

rtSW  TOBK                       CHICAGO                      TOHOJTTO 

I 

